Today is my last day in Cambridge. It’s been one heck of a two-year stay, and the devoted reader might just remember how mildly disgruntled I was to move to these boondocks from the urbane Midwest. Well, all I can say is that the darn place has grown on me. Oh alright! I love it…except for the dreary weather, that is. I love the quaint, cluttered, cobblestoned streets; I love the jampacked triple-deckers; I love the freedom to walk just about anywhere I feel like, be it to the movie theatre or the supermarket or the library or the laboratory; I love how every Scandinavian metal band sees it fit to visit either Boston or Worcester for a concert thus enriching my wardrobe; I love how random people on the street comment on the book that I’m reading or the t-shirt that I’m wearing. I love knowing where to stand on the subway platform so that the train’s door opens exactly in front and thereby deposits me near the exit of my choice at the destination; I love how people take care of their tiny gardens and make them blooming wonders in spring/summer; I love roaming around Harvard Square, soaking in the ambience and sheer historical weight of the place.
Now that I’ve achieved my dream of leaving the student-status behind, I hate to find myself longing for the return to innocence (ed: hat-tip Enigma).
The departure from Urbana is a wound that has healed. My recent visits back to the origin prised them open slightly but hemophilia does not run in my family. Boston/Cambridge might take longer to flush out of the system given the violent passions it aroused within me. She took me in as a kid and turned me into a man…approximately. The anathema of living in a big city has been considerably reduced although I will say that Boston is leagues ahead of NYC from the snapshots that I had of the latter to afford such a comparison. A few goodbyes have been dealt with but the toughest ones remain: saying farewell to my colleagues of 5 years, a few of whom I recently elevated to the pedestal of “friends”. In my defence, they have earned the privilege.
