i’m moving this blog to a new site. i know, so soon. but it has become apparent that this site does not provide enough storage space for the pictures i will upload in the next few months. catch me at: farawaytowns.wordpress.com.
rarely have i ever felt the ecstasy i felt on june 4, 2009. returning to cambridge for graduation festivities proved to be a real treat. for one, the campus had been completely rejuvenated in every way — sunshine, landscaping, students whose faces were no longer pinched by anxiety over tests and papers . . .
i don’t know if my nostalgia is now getting the best of me, but the day seemed to exemplify the best of harvard: at one moment the ceremony hearkened back to its history with solemn University ensembles sung for hundreds of years, and at another the joy of the moment was reflected by wynton marsalis (an honorary degree recipient) tapping out an impromptu “when the saints go marching in” on his trumpet. an administrator embarked on a serious latin oratory followed moments later by a clever tongue-in-cheek student speech. men in top hats and tail coats escorted guests in and out of their seats. freshly green leaves fluttered from the elms and christened graduates who sat quietly while the county sheriff commenced and closed ceremonies in the Yard. and students held up signage protesting layoffs just as quickly as they held up gavels, books, globes, and flags, which symbolized their newly-conferred professional degrees. best, all of the events were decorated by parents beaming with pride, champagne, bag pipes, and velvet-lined regalia.
two days of ceremonies and i was smiling throughout. i even kept my cool when i spotted john edwards mingling with the other parents at our casual law students reception. appropriately, the dean whose new york accent shepherded us through graduate school returned to campus to address us as she — and we — said goodbye to the frustrations, triumphs, and lessons learned at and around 1525 massachusetts avenue. it even occurred to me on june 3, after a parental tour of the library had me stumbling upon secret service men guarding the caspersen room, that some of the grandest goodbyes happened to be the most private. 48 hours of laughter, relief, and expectation. . . what began with spontaneous games of “guess whose parents?” ended in a pot luck party complete with a slideshow of photographs from my friends’ past three years in boston. i even flew away utterly exhausted but with a glimmer in my eye, still basking in the cheerful close to a fortunate chapter.
i said goodbye to boston this week. it was a bittersweet farewell, to be sure. goodbye to langdell library, goodbye to north hall dormitory, goodbye to daedalus. bye highrock, section six, bar review, freedom trail, berry line. i will miss most the brain trust, the traveling, the human rights program, the self-reflection. . . don’t get me wrong, i am surprised at this nostalgia. i will be the first to admit that i did not expect to feel this way. law school is a self-shaking adventure, and for me it was simultaneously isolating and invigorating. so i certainly didn’t expect the emotion that crept up as i watched the charles river fade into the distance, from the back window of a cambridge cab. oh, cambridge, even when i am leaving, you greet me with your red bricks lined sharply in a row. and yes, those winters last FOREVER. but the beauty of my little spot in a city full of personal growth and intellectual stimulation was that self-discovery there — like the spring — was warmer and more fulfilling after the long winter before.
so farewell, my love; and, as my first law school professor appropriately described you — goodbye “my cold, my splendid harvard law school.”
