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Stunning
Before now, I didn’t understand.
Maybe it’s because my school is right in the middle of a very beautiful city, I don’t know. But I’ve never, ever regretted my University’s lack of a traditional, secluded, non-urban campus. Oh, there have been weekends before a big exam when I’ve despaired at the protesters disrupting my favorite study spots by the Mall, but certainly nothing more than that.
Because for every temporary annoyance, there have been a thousand riches in Washington to make up for it. The National Archives or the Library of Congress for research. The balm that settles over my soul when walking through the sculpture garden or the FDR Memorial. Concerts or ballets or plays at the Kennedy Center, for half price. The amazing people you meet and have conversations with after a debate or panel discussion about… almost anything, really. The soaring beauty of the National Cathedral, the Washington Monument, and a full moon over the Potomac after a late-night stroll through Georgetown.
The way my definition of spring now always, unhesitatingly, includes the words ”cherry blossoms”.
Before now, I didn’t see the appeal of hiding behind ivory gates and walls. I didn’t like the implication that academia was somehow secluded from the ”real” world The mere thought of study without interacting with those involved—politicians, civil servants, artists, critics, whomever—was stifling.
But if this is what Syntax recalls when he thinks of his alma mater, I’m beginning, belatedly, to understand.
Forgive me, love. You don’t need me to tell you that I’m slow.