Summer Has Come and Passed

One thing about living where I do, because the city is so full of colleges and universities, you always know when the seasons change — for better and for worse.

Around Labor Day weekend, the flood of college students makes their presence known. They clog up the streets with their moving trucks, make the lines longer at Shaw's, delay the T by cramming on in the morning even when there's no space left, and other subtle things that make us locals long for winter break, when they'll be gone again. But it's not just the students' fault; all over the city, leases tend to begin on September 1, for example. So whether you like it or not, if you live in Boston, Labor Day weekend signals the official beginning of fall.

In years' past, I've always looked at Labor Day weekend and the beginning of the school year in a sort of wistful and nostalgic way, wishing I was going back to Brandeis again, where things were always easier and more fun, and I didn't have all the adult stresses that I do now. Having been an orientation volunteer for three years, the beginning of the school year was always equated with good times. But nowadays, since it reminds me of fun I can't have, orientation time has become one of my least favorite parts of living here as I look at the students with pure envy. (The same goes with graduation weekend, which always seems to signal in me an evaluation of just what I've accomplished in the past year and inevitably leaves me disappointed.)

This year, however, that's changed. I'm actually happy that Labor Day weekend has come because it signals the end of the summer of 2005, which wasn't exactly the most exciting time of my life. Too much stress, depression, frustration, loneliness, laziness and general boredom. Suffice it to say, like all the college students who have returned to Boston this weekend, I hope to begin the fall with a clean slate. I want change. I need change. And I know that no one is going to change things for me, so I have to do it myself.

So, with that in mind, I wish whoever is reading this site a very happy Fall. May it be better than the summer just past, and full of promise and potential that for a change, does not go unrealized.