Growing Up
This post is for Saturday, May 27, 2017.
I started going to Moses Brown back in 2002 when I was entering 3rd grade. On one of my last days at my old school I started to cry during one of our all-school meetings. That was the first time I remember leaving.
There's no manual on growing up. It's pretty much a blank canvas. You have to paint your own picture. You do get help along the way though. Family, friends, strangers. They can help with painting, they can trace an outline for you, and sometimes they just spill paint everywhere and you need to clean it up.
Leaving Moses Brown wasn't as eventful for me. I was ready to go to college. I fell in love with Boston at a week long game programming camp I attended in Boston back in the summer of 2010. I stayed in a dorm, we rode the T to get around the city. I was doing something I enjoyed. It was a perfect combination that led me to choose Northeastern.
Now I'm 23 but that doesn't really mean anything to me at the moment. My birthday doesn't define life events. Those happen whenever. Working at a state park for the summer, starting school for the year, moving away from your friends for 8 months, leaving Boston. I can say that 18 year old me is a different person than 23 year old me. However, I think that 22 year old me is also a different person than 22 1/2 year old me. And when I say different I mean I hope I changed for the better.
Leaving Boston, leaving Northeastern, leaving my friends, leaving New England, leaving my family, leaving the people I've met. Leaving is going to be harder this time around. I hope to move back to Boston in the future but the future is never certain. I don't want this to be a goodbye but more of a see ya later.
I'm not starting from square one in Seattle. I now have 5 years of additional experience to bring with me. Along with all of the random things, including a rock, that I'm bringing. Something I've tried to learn is to not worry about the past but instead try and use the past to make the future better. I don't know if it's right to say I'm going to miss Boston. Boston was the latest chapter in my life, a previous me. Seattle is the next chapter, and hopefully it includes a better me. I am looking forward to coming back to Boston, whether it takes 2 years, 4 years, or even longer. We'll see where life takes me, because I'm still growing up.