Snowglobes

Last night, I was lying in bed reading The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. Shadows from the ivy draped outside my window sprawled across the blank walls of my room, and I could hear a car engine whirring along Harvard Street a few blocks away. I flipped the page and read the line: “Don’t let the wicked city get you down.” I paused, and read it again. Then I set down my book and looked up at the ivy shadows for a while.

So far, I’ve been enjoying living in Boston this summer. June was a whirlwind (I know it was for all of us!) as I was moving into my sublet and starting my internship at a PR agency in Downtown Crossing. I felt as though my life were a snowglobe that some higher power had lifted and shaken, and I was counting down the seconds until the snowflakes would settle, until things would seem a little bit clearer and calmer again. I suppose that’s life: cycles of picking up a snowglobe and shaking it until you’re satisfied with the stir you’ve created before setting it back down again.

As the snow in my globe is finally settling, I’m feeling the highs and lows of living far from Michigan for the first summer of my life. I’ve swapped the smiles of my neighbors for the sad man who smokes on the balcony next door, the rolling waves of Lake Michigan for the hot sidewalks of Boston. The wickedness of the city creeps in when I inhale the strong stench of urine as I walk to work, or when the cars pass inches from me as I cross the street. 

But I’m learning to not let the wicked city get me down.

On my way to work one morning, as I was riding with the screechy turns of the T and looking up at the people around me, I felt a strange sense of comradery. There we all were, with tucked shirts and tired eyes, just doing our best for the day. It felt hard, but it felt like enough. I’m choosing to believe that we’re in this together, that we’re all connected somehow as we live in our own little snowglobes. Things shake up, as they do without fail, but they also settle. I think the key, for me, is to learn to trust gravity.

I hope everyone is doing well and finding some calm amid the chaos of post-grad!

With peace, teeth, love, and a little trust,

Nora