Maine to New York

You can’t escape the city, and to tell you the truth I really wouldn’t want to if I could. No more dirt roads, no more trees, and I couldn’t be happier without them. I lived in Maine, in the same house, in the same town until I was 18. I feel like what Lang has done for me is remove me from the redundancy of a small town life. I’ve left and I enjoy living in the city, and I know I can always come back rather than never leave. Going home for break brought this realization that if I had stayed in Maine I would have been trapped. I see beautiful and brilliant people chained to my small town, to the drugs, to the booze that allows them to be content with living forever in a town of nothing. I cannot leave myself out in saying I was one of those people who had little hope that I would live out of Maine. I live in New York fucking City! I found a way out and I couldn’t be happier where I landed.

If I were to say what Lang has done most for me I’d say it just opened me up. It opened me up to different ideas, different environments, and to the limitless possibilities of New York City. I thought at first Lang was a good fit because they didn’t require math and that’s my kind of school. The more time I spent here I realized that I did fit here. I could’ve stayed in Maine and gone to the state university and survived. However had that been the case it wouldn’t live up to the standards I have now. I can speak my mind, I can smoke my cigarettes, I can say that I like classical music, I can question religion, I can, I can, I can. That’s it; I can do what ever the hell I want with my life and not be looked down on for wanting something more than a winning Red Sox season, not that that wouldn’t be nice. I guess what’s special to me about my experience so far at Lang is that I’ve found intellectual freedom, that is shared between genuinely interesting people.

Reading through this I felt like I’ve betrayed Maine. In all honesty it is a great place to grow up. I climbed tree’s, biked through the woods, and I’d do it the same if I had the choice. Once climbing trees isn’t cool, once you drive instead of biking it changes. You can’t stay a child forever and once you develop liberal or unorthodox ideas get the fuck out. Vacationland is simply that for me. A place to refuel and rest and remember how beautiful it is when I come back, but I have to know that I’ll only stay for so long.