Well friends, like so many of you I have been glued to the TV over the past few days. The attack at the Boston Marathon hit pretty close to home, and I’m still finding it hard to believe that all of this happened on a street I used to walk every day. My heart goes out to everyone affected, and especially those whose lives were changed forever on Monday.
Patton may have said it best
As much as St. Louis or Sydney, Boston is home for me. I lived there for nearly a decade in total, but first laid eyes on it many, many summers ago when my Mom took a summer job working at a camp in New Hampshire. She brought my little brother and I along, and we spent our weekdays exploring the wilderness of Camp Merrowvista, and our weekends exploring the city of Boston. My little kid self took one look at Boston and thought it was the greatest city ever. Granted I was a bit less worldly back then, but as it turns out, I wasn’t too far off base. 11 or so years later I was back in Boston as a student at Emerson College.
I actually moved to Boston before I even had an acceptance letter from Emerson. That part didn’t worry me too much – honestly, I just really wanted to live in Boston and figured the rest would fall into place. As luck would have it, it did, and little kid Marlana couldn’t have picked a better city fall in love with.
After the events on Monday, I hear some people saying that Boston will never be the same again, and I suspect there is some truth to that. When bad things happen it tends to change us, but then again, the good things tend to change us too. Regardless of the bad or the good, the best we can do is make sure that each change ends up making us better. I think Boston has that covered.
I’m sure at this point you’ve seen too many images connected with the marathon, both horrifying and hopeful, so instead I thought I’d share a few images of things that make me love this city. There is so much more though so please leave me a comment and add to this list – what do you love about Boston!?
P.S. No post about Boston should be complete without this:
mustbewanderlust 
I spent five years in Boston. When I left, I was glad to be getting the hell out and returning to my favorite place in the world: Pittsburgh. But, in the end, Boston served me well. It was a test-run at adulthood. It was a crash-course in falling in love and getting my heart broken. It was five years when I lived life to its fullest possible extent. It was where I met Marlana!
Here are my five favorite Boston things/people/places/stuff that I sometimes find myself missing:
1. GREAT SCOTT, Friday nights. I danced my face off, sweated through t-shirts in the summer, and drank so many vodka red bulls. Dancing with all my friends at my last Great Scott as a resident of Boston was a chart-topping life moment.
2. The Pizza Ark aka Beaconsfield Park. This is a park tucked away in Brookline between the C and D line and Coolidge Corner and Cleveland Circle. It had a couple ballfields, a playground, and some tennis courts. It also had a nice sloped hill, which was a great place to recover from hangovers, picnic with friends, or sleep…at night. I only managed this twice (friends foiled a third attempt…in the wintertime), but both times were kind of awesome.
3. Biking along the Charles. Boston is where I bought my bike, and it’s where I started riding a lot. I went up and down the Charles for hours when the weather agreed.
4. Walking EVERYWHERE. I walked so much in Boston. It’s so walkable, it’s almost a crime not to. On nice evenings I would walk the four miles from Copley Square to Brighton. I did the Walk for Hunger a few times. I made my parents walk so much during a visit that they each had to buy new shoes when they got home cause all the walking I made them do wore them out!
5. The friends that came out of nowhere. I went to Boston knowing one person. I left Boston knowing a bunch of incredibly awesome ones. There is a core group of people I will never forget. There are inside jokes I will never stop laughing at. When I moved, I wanted to bring them all with me. I hope one day for a grand reunion over PBRs and free popcorn at the Silhouette.