Moving Time

I'm not moving, but every time I come home from work I see all of the college students moving in or out all along the Boston University and Northeastern University neighborhoods. Sunday, after a full day of work, traffic was at a standstill. Normally Sunday traffic is a breeze.

Turns out all the moving trucks lining the streets were reducing the size of city streets to about nothing. To make matters worse there was a Redsox game on, which is bad enough for commuters as is. Add the number of college kids toting mops and Yaffa Blocks (do you remember those age old stackable crates) across the street and you've got a commuter's nightmare.

Except that it wasn't a nightmare really. The beginning of school is such a magical time. All of these kids either packing up to go onto careers or parent's basements or moving in for their first day of school, it was like the streets were energized. My own college experience could not have been more different from these folks.

The busiest street at William Jewell was the main entrance, which I never used because I lived on campus. There were a number of commuters, but for a school that educates less than 3000 students, it's not exactly booming. We were an island of education, swept up in books and bad cafeteria food.

Boston University is in the city. Their dorms are literally brownstones that line the Charles River. I wonder how much studying I would have done if I lived in Boston when I was 18. I suppose they have a campus, but it seems to me like their campus is really Boston itself.

I suppose seclusion is no better or worse than inclusion (in the way of cityiness) but I wish I'd had a bit more of the world around my school, now that I know the world. Still, no use crying over spilled milk. Who knows if I would have finished my BA if I'd had a choice between the Squeeling Pig, the Boston Commons, or Modern Political Thought. My guess is that I would have remained isolated anyway considering how little I really knew about life.