I Chose Sonoma - Maya Herron: “Why Would I Leave?”
Maya’s Sonoma Journey — I Chose Sonoma
This is the second of three stories about Maya’s relationship with Sonoma Valley.
🟩 Born and Raised in Sonoma Valley — Chapter 1
Maya grows up in Glen Ellen, attends local schools and absorbs Sonoma Valley’s landscape, friendships and wine culture as parts of everyday life.
🟥 Why Would I Leave? — Chapter 2 (You are reading this story.)
🟦 Omnipresent, but Small — Chapter 3
Click on the Chater 3 Link above to continue Maya’s journey as she contributes to Sonoma Valley by teaching children, supporting local traditions, helping preserve a historic Plaza shop and solving people’s small problems.
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Maya never felt compelled to leave Sonoma Valley. Through changing jobs, interrupted plans, motherhood and the 2017 wildfires, her lifelong friendships and sense of belonging kept her rooted in the community she had always called home.
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Leaving Sonoma didn’t even occur to me when I was younger. All my friends were here. Why would I leave?
I also had no idea how people moved from one state to another. Surely there was a procedure, and I didn’t know it. This was before you could immediately find the answer to everything on the internet. You could search online, but it was more complicated than it is now.
I never thought to leave, so I started making my life here.
I taught children’s karate when I was young. I started when I was about fourteen and continued until I was around sixteen. Then I worked at Baskin-Robbins when Sonoma still had a Baskin-Robbins. At seventeen, I became the youngest supervisor CVS had ever hired.
After CVS, I worked for several years in catering at Ramekins. I also worked at the front desk of the hotel there. Catering sometimes took us farther away, but the organization, cooking school and hotel were in Sonoma.
Working in catering added to the knowledge of wine I had absorbed while growing up. People asked a lot of questions about wine, so I had to learn about it.
I eventually returned to Santa Rosa Junior College with more information about how college worked. I studied fire technology and planned to become an arson investigator.
The 2017 wildfires interrupted my studies. As I was trying to return, the pandemic hit. I never completed the degree, although I came pretty close and could still go back.
I am physically disabled, and I also realized that I probably couldn’t do the necessary fieldwork. I had to set that plan aside. Then I became pregnant and had my daughter, who is wonderful.
She attends Kenwood Elementary School because we live in Glen Ellen, between Kenwood and Sonoma. We considered Dunbar, but it had become a Waldorf school, and we weren’t sure its approach would suit her way of learning.
My daughter has always been an artist. She was drawing very early and only wanted to use a little ballpoint pen. She wants to do what she wants to do. She can be stubborn, but I love that about her.
We sent her to Kenwood, and she is doing very well there. Her best friend is my best friend’s daughter, and they were born six months apart.
The Kenwood school community is incredibly strong. Kenwood is a little isolated, so the town has created its own close community within the larger Sonoma Valley community.
The school organizes auctions, social nights and movie nights for the children. It participates in parades and sponsors the children’s area at Glen Ellen’s Fourth of July celebration. All the parents know one another.
Many of the children live in Kenwood. It is one of those places where children can still roam around safely because everybody knows one another and is looking out for them. You rarely see that anymore.
The strength of my own community became especially clear during the 2017 wildfires. The fire came within six feet of our house. My daughter was only about nine months old.
For a month or two, we moved from one person’s house to another with our cats and the baby. We stayed for a while with Jim and Sandy, the parents of my friend Kristen. They are some of the nicest people I know.
We were very lucky. Once the area reopened, we were able to return to our home.
I have watched Sonoma change since I was a child. In good ways and bad ways, there has been a lot of gentrification. That is a problem throughout the Bay Area, but Sonoma has definitely changed.
It was always quaint, but now it is a little fancier. I hesitate to say “bougier,” but that might be it.
The Plaza used to be filled with cute little shops. Now it is mostly tasting rooms, although there are still small businesses and some have been here forever. Candlestick, where I work, has been here since 1957. Global Heart used to be Bakshish. Murphy’s Irish Pub, Steiner’s and the Girl & the Fig have also been here for a long time.
For better or worse, Sonoma became nicer. There used to be parts of town people considered bad, and now there really aren’t. I think that is great, but we also drove out some of the diversity we used to have.
The community has lost some of its places for children and families. I worked at the movie theater in Fiesta Plaza that had been here since I was little. I stopped working there because it closed. The space is now a Big 5.
There used to be a bowling alley, too. There really isn’t much for children to do in this town anymore. That is probably part of the reason there aren’t as many children here. My daughter is one of fifteen students in the fourth grade at her school. That is a very small class.
Despite all those changes, Sonoma is still a very accepting place. You will not find nicer people.
California has a reputation for being kind to your face but not very helpful. People might smile and wave as they drive past you while you’re stuck on the side of the road with a flat tire.
The stereotype of the East Coast is that someone will pull over and say, “Idiot, how did you get yourself into this mess?” Then they’ll change your tire and give you hot cocoa, a hat and a sweater while continuing to berate you.
I think Sonoma has a nice middle ground. In my experience, people here are genuinely happy to help you, and they are also kind to your face.
For me, staying in Sonoma has never been one big decision. My friends were here, my work was here and my life was here. Even as the town and my plans changed, this was still home.
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Staying as a Natural Choice
Maya did not make a dramatic decision to remain in Sonoma Valley. Staying felt natural because her friendships, work and sense of belonging were already rooted here.
Plans That Changed
Her path was not linear. Disability, the fires, motherhood and the pandemic altered her educational and professional plans, but she continued finding ways to make a life in the valley.
Community Revealed by Crisis
The 2017 wildfires showed the strength of Maya’s local relationships. Friends sheltered her family until they could return to a home that had narrowly survived.
A Complicated View of Change
Maya appreciates that Sonoma has become safer and more polished while also mourning the loss of diversity, small businesses and activities for local children.
Relationships That Endure
Her childhood friendships now extend to a new generation. These lasting connections are among the strongest reasons Sonoma Valley remains home.
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This story was created from an interview with Maya Herron conducted by Don Lundgren. Maya’s words have been edited for length and clarity while preserving her voice, experiences and meaning.
