measi's Diaryland Diary
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Ten years
I drove Erich to the T this morning, and realized as we drove that I've lived in Boston for ten years now. Over a third of my life. Where has the time gone?
I can still see myself moving into my dorm just before Labor Day weekend in 1993, scared as hell to be in this city I'd never been to before. Unlike a lot of college students, I did the do-or-die method when applying to school. Never toured, never went to visit... just applied, got in, and went to school, figuring that if I hated it that bad, I could always go back home and attend Montana State.
Yesterday morning, I drove Avatar back to his apartment in Allston-- right in the heart of September First Moving Hell. We didn't quite GET to his apartment. I dropped him off about five blocks away, since it was the closest I could get before hitting the quagmire of moving trucks. It brought back some of the fond memories of college.
Oh, I don't miss September First Moving Hell in Boston. That wonderful day when more than three quarters of the city's apartments change over on leases, when it's impossible to walk through Allston-Brighton without stumbling over someone's stuff that was either unwanted or is stored out on the walkway because the next tenant is rabid about moving in. When you can't go ten feet without finding a moving truck, or a poor sap who forgot to rent his truck back in May for the Sept. 1st move, and is trying to stuff as many belongings as possible into a Honda Civic, scratching his head because he swears that twelve-foot bookcase that doesn't break down will fit if he scoots stuff over just a little bit more.
Been there, done that. Three times (moving into Egremont, moving out of Egremont-into the Beast, and moving out of the Beast last year). Don't want to again. Ever. *shudder*
But I digress.
Since I belong to a few livejournal communities, I've been reading some of the postings by freshmen entering BU. A lot of comments about how small rooms are have amused me. I remember the dread when I first opened the door to my frosh dorm room and winced at the cinder block walled room that maybe measured 10x12 feet for Kathy and I.
It's odd that in a way, I do miss dorm life. There was something cozy about it. Even if I got sick of being woken up at 4 a.m. by floormates. I miss college life in general sometimes.
My only regret now is that I didn't keep a journal those first two years. I have one from my junior year of college that stretched until a few months after I graduated... and another patchwork one that lasted from 1998 until I opened this one in 2001. It would be amusing to look back, recopy some of the entries into this one, and just reflect on how different a person I am now, yet in many ways, still the same.
Needless to say, in a lot of ways I live vicariously through Sam, since she *did* record parts of her freshman year in Boston, and had some similar feelings that I recall from ten years ago. (And Sam, I thought of you while my mom and I ate lunch at the Tic-Toc a couple weeks ago... just because I remembered you'd mentioned it in your entries...)
I remember that the most traumatizing thing about moving to college was not that I was going to Boston or to college for the first time, but that my dad wanted to bring along his girlfriend of the time, who I did NOT get along with at all. And she was all gung-ho about taking over my moving-into-college experience. Thankfully, a blow-up between her and my dad ended their relationship about two weeks before we left for Boston, so she didn't come along.
I remember watching my dad's taxi leave the curbside in front of Warren Towers, driving down Comm. Ave toward the Pru (and eventually the airport) to head home, and the fear and excitement about being by myself by the first time.
I remember being fascinated by the grime that was Kenmore Square. Yesterday morning as Avatar and I drove through it, I remarked at how different it is now. Hardly any of the companies that were there ten years ago still exist. Hell, many of the buildings don't exist anymore.
How things change. How they stay the same.
When I moved to Boston in 1993, my dad and I walked by the Pru to remark on the not-yet-opened Prudential Center mall. The Pru tower was there, but the mall itself was still under construction. In ten years, the Pru center not only became one of my favorite haunts, but it now has an additional office tower and apartment complex attached to it.
At the end of my freshman year, South Station became a roadblock of Jersey barriers and dug-up streets as the tunneling of the Big Dig began under the station. Ten years later, it's finally just cleared up, although there's still tunneling going on for the Big Dig. When Minarae and Petrouchka come to town this coming weekend, they'll see the "minor" remnants of the project that are still going on. It seems so minor after the last decade of insanity downtown.
I wonder how the class of 2007 is going to remember how things were when they moved in in 2003....
~ Mel.
And just 'cause....
The Discordians:
Hail Bob.
Fnord.
Which Illuminati are you?
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Hail Eris! :)
2:37 p.m. - 02 September 2003
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