Today is the last day of September. It is fall, my favorite time of year. And as much as I hate being reminded each morning that the days are getting shorter and that before I know it I will be standing in snow up to my knees cursing my fate having bore me in Minnesota, fall seems to intoxicate my senses with an incredible nostalgia. The crisp smell of fall air is filled with football games, ladies nights, karaoke, and endless pots of coffee. It is during this time of year when it seems like everything I see and smell reminds me of the years past. This fall seems to be particularly filled with sentiment however being my very official year out of college. They say that when people lose limbs they can suffer from memory pains for years; is it possible I am experiencing similar pains. I spent the better part of my twenty three years of life in school, but the four and a half I spent in college seem to have left a lasting impression on me.
I have only been a part of the corporate world now for five months and having started that journey in May, my first natural response to September is: school. Only this September came and is now gone and I am slowly realizing that it is really all over. I drove to work today in order to fulfill a volunteer opportunity with my coworkers. So typically I would be waiting for the bus for up to twenty minutes after work - but today I had the freedom to leave precisely when I wanted to – and then proceeded to wait twenty minutes in traffic fighting my way out of downtown. I didn’t mind however because I was able to crank the music and jam out in my own privacy; Aretha Franklin’s “Respect” happened to be the first of many in this evenings set. Not to say that the bus doesn’t have its own charm and entertaining subjects to ponder but that experience would fit under an entirely different set of feelings, something closer to “the crazies on bus number four and how incredibly broken our society is in so many ways” a topic I will surely be granting more attention to in the near future. But this was about something else.
As I slowly crept out of downtown, I found myself on University Avenue waiting at a stoplight just outside Dunn Bros coffee, and there it was staring me in the face both literally and figuratively - the past. To my direct left was the house my girlfriends lived in, to my right was the Essex’s boy’s house and in front of me was a mile stretch of memories. As I turned onto the newly re-opened 35W bridge, an already overwhelming experience knowing what had happened there only a year previous, I felt like I was being warped into the past. I had driven this route to the gym countless times but this was the first time I’d driven it for more than a year; even before I left for Rome. Rewind my life 18 months and driving to the gym would likely be a prelude to an evening out with my girls to one of many fine establishments including but not limited to Sally’s, Blarney’s, Library, Loco, Seven Corners and the like. And even if we weren’t going out we were sitting in our living room over looking Washington Ave shooting the shit and having an amazing time doing absolutely nothing. No matter how much we may have complained about homework and the certain limitations that come with being young twenty-somethings, we were having the time of our lives. And here I am today driving to the gym again only this time there will be no after party, unless of course you consider going to bed by ten in order to beat the corporate grind the next day a good time.
I guess what I am trying to say with this giant run on sentence is that I am deeply mourning my college days. And there is almost nothing I wouldn't give to rewind the clocks for one more night of it! The smell of fall brings it all back.
I have only been a part of the corporate world now for five months and having started that journey in May, my first natural response to September is: school. Only this September came and is now gone and I am slowly realizing that it is really all over. I drove to work today in order to fulfill a volunteer opportunity with my coworkers. So typically I would be waiting for the bus for up to twenty minutes after work - but today I had the freedom to leave precisely when I wanted to – and then proceeded to wait twenty minutes in traffic fighting my way out of downtown. I didn’t mind however because I was able to crank the music and jam out in my own privacy; Aretha Franklin’s “Respect” happened to be the first of many in this evenings set. Not to say that the bus doesn’t have its own charm and entertaining subjects to ponder but that experience would fit under an entirely different set of feelings, something closer to “the crazies on bus number four and how incredibly broken our society is in so many ways” a topic I will surely be granting more attention to in the near future. But this was about something else.
As I slowly crept out of downtown, I found myself on University Avenue waiting at a stoplight just outside Dunn Bros coffee, and there it was staring me in the face both literally and figuratively - the past. To my direct left was the house my girlfriends lived in, to my right was the Essex’s boy’s house and in front of me was a mile stretch of memories. As I turned onto the newly re-opened 35W bridge, an already overwhelming experience knowing what had happened there only a year previous, I felt like I was being warped into the past. I had driven this route to the gym countless times but this was the first time I’d driven it for more than a year; even before I left for Rome. Rewind my life 18 months and driving to the gym would likely be a prelude to an evening out with my girls to one of many fine establishments including but not limited to Sally’s, Blarney’s, Library, Loco, Seven Corners and the like. And even if we weren’t going out we were sitting in our living room over looking Washington Ave shooting the shit and having an amazing time doing absolutely nothing. No matter how much we may have complained about homework and the certain limitations that come with being young twenty-somethings, we were having the time of our lives. And here I am today driving to the gym again only this time there will be no after party, unless of course you consider going to bed by ten in order to beat the corporate grind the next day a good time.
I guess what I am trying to say with this giant run on sentence is that I am deeply mourning my college days. And there is almost nothing I wouldn't give to rewind the clocks for one more night of it! The smell of fall brings it all back.
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