Boston

Where would you live if you could live anywhere?

My husband would say California. I see the appeal, and could definitely spend a few months there every year. But my heart would bring me back east, and though I love New York, I would probably choose... Boston.

What? Am I really saying that?

I am.

Boston imprinted itself on me when I was very young, and my sister spent her first year of college there. I remember driving up from New York with my family in early September and being impressed at how brisk the air was, while at home it was still summer. I remember my sister's dorm room with students dashing around, and saying to myself that when I was old enough to go to college, this is where I'd go.

After spending a summer in Pittsburgh at Carnegie Mellon, I fell in love with the school and tried to go; but my mother, who was hell-bent on not spending college money for me to graduate acting school, refused to let me apply. After a bruising battle, I was able to convince her to let me major in "theater education." That sent me back to Boston.

I applied to Emerson College and was accepted there. And once I left, I never looked back. Boston had pretty much everything I wanted. I loved the school, and all the city's students gave it an energy you just couldn't find anywhere else.

There was music, concerts, theater, bookstores and pretty little shops on Beacon Hill; farmer's markets, the Commons, the beautiful Charles. The beautiful old buildings reminded me of pictures of London. I found great friends and my favorite bar in the world when I moved across the river to Cambridge. 

The Plough and the Stars was always full of people and had the best Irish whiskey in the world. I went there almost every day and on St. Patrick's Day, when there was a long line to get in, they pulled me inside when I knocked and told the astonished people behind me, "She's a regular."

I even met a wonderful boyfriend and friend there one night, and both became important relationships for the next year or two. When my relationship with the boyfriend ended, I was still able to commiserate with friends at the Plough--and recover by acting in a leading role in a play by a well-known witch from Salem.

What I remember most was how beautiful each season was, the depth of my friendships, parties almost every weekend and the playwrights and actors who journeyed with me through our budding careers. And when we were tired of the city, we found our way to Cape Cod, New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont, and all of those places were spectacular in ways even San Francisco cannot match.

My friend Kathleen was from Vermont. If you asked her about where she went to school in Ohio and what it was like there, she would say, "It's pretty if you haven't seen New England." I would still have to agree.

So if I could live anywhere, it would be  this city. I know it likely won't be as I remember it; but there would still be enough, I think, to make me happy. It's doubtful I will get back there, but the city I chose in the Midwest has enough of Boston in it to satisfy me. 

And one day, soon, maybe, I'll figure out a way to visit, especially as a close friend recently moved to Lee in western Massachusetts. Some cities just call to you.

This one always will.


Boston photo: Icelight

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