Going to college in Boston was one of the greatest experiences of my life. While applying to colleges, going to school in a city never really crossed my mind. I always figured I would go to school somewhere in Vermont or Maine. But on one fateful day in February, I made the trip to Boston to tour various colleges. Being the middle of winter in Boston, it was freezing and the wind chill was bringing the temperature down into the negatives.
While the whole trip should have been horrible and painstaking, I found myself feeling at home. While I nearly froze to death on Comm Ave, I made the decision that I was going to go to school in Boston. While I love New York, I still feel lost in the gigantic concrete jungle, but in Boston I felt at home within a week. I knew the major buildings and I lived within walking distant of Newbury Street, Boylston Street and the Prudential Center. The farthest I ever had to travel to visit someone was 30 minutes and they lived in Cambridge.
Boston is a small city, much smaller than New York, and the closeness inspires camaraderie like no where I have ever been. I have lived in New York for a few months and I have yet to see a huge troop of Yankee fans or Knicks fans running around together.
My first week in Boston, I was met with the biggest flock of Red Sox fans I have ever seen while walking down Mass Ave. Hundreds of people all in their red and blue walking to Fenway Park. And granted yes, I know the stadium is right near the center of Boston, but even when the Celtics or the Bruins were playing the sea of fans was always as far as the eye could see.
I figured I would never give in to the Boston sport fever, but by my Junior year I owned Red Sox jerseys and I knew the players’s names on the Celtics. I even painted my nails to correspond with what team was playing that night. I couldn’t tell you how any of the sports were played, or what most of the calls meant, but they were my team and I was going to watch the game and cheer them on!
Walking down the street proudly in my team’s colors I felt like I was part of one big family. If a team won, an epic celebration ensued. When a team lost the whole city felt it, people took it as a personal hit.While it can seem that Boston is just proud of its’ sports teams it goes deeper than that. Bostonians are proud of Boston, and they show that through their team colors. When there is a crisis people band together and help each other in any way possible. They open their doors to strangers, and do what is needed to help. This amazing sense of camaraderie was made apparent to the world after the Boston bombings. Anything, that anyone could have done to help was done, and was done with love.
I loved being a part of Boston and feeling connected in someway to everyone around me. Don’t get me wrong I love New York and would choose to live no where else, but a part of me will always be with Boston, and will always miss the feeling of being a part of one, huge extended family.
Featured Image by Jason Leung on Unsplash
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