I was in Boston the other day and I happened to see in a local paper an article reporting the sale of some Emerson dorms, including my old dorm, 100. 132 Beacon, the Student Union, 6 Arlington -- they're all gone now. Emerson moved out.Partly it makes me sad because these buildings, old and decrepit as they may have been, had character that can never be replaced by hi-tech. And I'm sad too because these buildings I spent so much time in will be gutted and turned into million-dollar condos -- especially 100. A huge part of my life took place in that building.
But for the same reason I'm sad about it not being a dorm anymore, I'm glad too. That was my dorm, and there's something satisfying about seeing it sealed off... and seeing a newspaper proclaim that no one -- at least college students -- can live there anymore. Future Emersonians will make their memories elsewhere.
I guess it's fitting that I left Boston the same summer 100 ceased to exist. It'd been a long time since I last looked up at my old windows and wished I still lived there, but it's comforting to know I haven't left anything behind. No Christmas lights in the windows. No smokers on the steps. No orientation leaders in brightly-colored shirts. No shuttle bus idling outside. Just businessmen now, deciding how to carve it up.
1 comment:
This made me want to shed a tear - I miss it! I would have lived there for years more, in the cramped single or the double with too many doors to arrange furniture properly.
And Cinderella's or Ankara late at night.
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