Right On Laurel Street: Another Westside Story

This is a story about too much, too soon, too quick—the expectation to field a wrecking ball in Little League—a perfect steam-rolling demolition of a wee-one. At least too much for Jessica Smith, a young Westside Santa Cruz surfer girl and Santa Cruz High’s class clown of ‘94, who didn’t know life has the potential to be so brutal and devastating—maybe in movies, history textbooks and third-world countries, but not real, modern American life.

The most life-altering and traumatizing loss Smith suffered happened the day Darryl “Flea” Virostko won the first annual Mavericks contest in Half Moon Bay, California. Virostko received the sad news of Smith’s loss just moments before receiving his first place trophy. Smith will share more about overcoming the post-traumatic stress that afflicted her for over a decade in her next book, Rebuilding the House of Mourning: Learning to Lament in an Age of Fun, Entertainment, Convenience, Addiction and Anti-Depressants. Here, then, is a story about growing up at break-neck speed—zero to one hundred in an instant, and the profound lessons Smith learned that restored her joy and will to live.