Tomorrow, very early in the morning, I'm going back to Cambridge. I'm flying for five-and-some straight hours and getting off a plane with a bag full of winter clothes and school skirts, running straight into the arms of my family. I am leaving three months of Thucydides and lymphocytes and the subjunctive tense behind in Portland, trading it for a month of mornings in front of the kitchen woodstove and picking my sister up from school. I am trading glorious grey Portland days that fade ever-so-softly into the dark for that brilliant winter twilight blue I love so much. I am trading the noise of dorm life for my brother's cello playing. I will miss Portland, and my friends, and even my classes, but I am so glad to go home. I am so glad to see my incredible family again, to play the piano in my living room (though I will miss the little upright Steinway in Prexy), to be around the people I love from half the world away most of the time.
I have learned so much in this first semester at Reed. I have learned that you come away from Humanities lectures with the best feeling in the world, like your whole consciousness has been opened. I have learned to take very good notes in biology and to practise my French as much as I can, listening to the news or just talking to friends. I have learned that it is absolutely crucial to do all the readings, that playing the piano keeps me sane, that sometimes you meet people who change your life. I have learned so much about friendship and people, about finding a niche but not being afraid to venture beyond it. This semester was incredible, and I'm sure the rest will be as well.
Family, Cambridge friends, New England, I will see you tomorrow.
(Unrelated, but the photo is of Wenceslas Square in Praha, taken by the incredible Alexandra. One of my favourite cities in the world)
No comments:
Post a Comment