I spent this weekend "at home" in College Park and DC. I was in town for a very very rainy homecoming and it was a fantastic visit. The game was great, I got to see a lot of the friends I've been missing in New York, I finally saw Emma's studio space/insane life, saw Molly and heard her talk about how fabulous her life is as a freshman (a time I found myself longing for somewhat as I walked around campus after dark one night), I saw some former co-workers and spent an hour chatting about the state of the world with one of my favorite professors.
The moment my bus pulled into DC on the trip down, I realized just how much I miss the city that I call home. It's different from New York in a lot of ways and while New York certainly wins on some things, it can't beat DC for me in terms of comfort. Walking from the bus to the metro in the yellow DC light, I was struck by a wave of nostalgia and what I can only describe as a sense of relief at being home in a place where I feel totally comfortable. More than the city itself, seeing old friends and spending time with my sisters brought up the same feelings. Being in a place I know, surrounded by people who know me so well is easy and always makes me insanely happy.
All that being said, I really do enjoy my life in New York. Different is good and I feel like taking the opportunity this year to change a lot about my life was the right thing to do. This city is so exciting and every day I love being here. My job is fantastic, I enjoy my coworkers and living with Alex in our super cute neighborhood in Brooklyn is really fun. I am also liking the freedom of not being in school. Having finished The Faulkner Paper and now being done (almost) with Medschool applications, I'm reading what I want to read and I have plenty of time to explore the city. There's no homework, no constant studying and I feel like all of that has given me a chance to get myself plugged back into the world. College can be isolating as far as current events go and I love that I have the time now to pay real attention to the real world.
But there are still things I miss about college. I miss being as smart as I was just last year--someone who could label all the structures of the brain and describe the functions of each. I miss being forced to take all my thoughts on a novel and shape them into a cohesive, well written and thoughtful paper. Without school it is easy to avoid big questions and to never spend time doing the kind of analysis and thinking that writing requires. Although I've spent a lot of time in the last few months reading about politics and health care and education and the state of the world in general, I haven't written anything and I'm not sure what I really think.
This blog is going to be an attempt to get myself writing again. To get me to organize my thoughts, to put them into words and to help me discover where I stand on certain issues. It's also going to serve as a record of my time in New York and of the work I'm doing with AmeriCorps and how each of these things changes and shapes me. And finally, I hope it will be a way for me to stay in touch with the people I miss most.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment