You May Leave Boston, but Boston Never Leaves You

[cali]

Each year, the city absorbs into its colleges and universities tens of thousands of teenagers, 18-year-olds, from every corner of the world, each of whom is seeking, in one way or another, to learn something and to become whatever it is they are destined to become. The boy from Arizona, there on a scholarship, who has never before seen snow. The girl from Montana, who's never seen anything but Big Sky. The lucky son of diplomats. They all arrive in late summer to a city used to showing children what it means, and what it takes, to live in a great American metropolis. No other city in the nation does this as well.

And, every year, in a cycle renewed for hundreds of years, the city disgorges tens of thousands of college graduates into the world. This means that there are millions of men and women wandering around America today who spent some of the best years of their lives in and around Boston, walking some of the very streets splattered with blood yesterday in the wake of the Marathon bombings. Boston is where those students like me came of age. It's where we met our spouses or significant others. It's where we learned our craft. It's where we connected with the friends and mentors we would have for the rest of our lives. Even if we can't say we are "from" Boston we surely confirm when asked that we are "of" Boston. It remains in our blood.

Boston's enormous extended family didn't have to be on or near Boylston Street Monday to appreciate how glorious Patriots' Day can be: the joy of springtime after the brutal New England winter; the early Sox game; the crowded Green Line; the early-opening bars; and the runners and their families, coming in toward the City, coming in toward the finish line. The parties on the balconies in the apartments along Beacon Street. The cheering for the men and women who had run so far for so long just for the privilege of running on this day. Indeed, even to those who never run, Marathon Day meant the end of our own personal marathons-- the looming end of the school year, the looming end of our college careers, the end of our youth.

No bombing can ever take away what Boston means to the men and women whose lives have been shaped by it over the generations. No tragedy can ever take away Patriots' Day, or the Marathon, or the city's pride and relief in having made it to another spring. For now, for today, perhaps it is enough to merely remind our friends and family there in the Hub that we are with them, that we never really left no matter how far away we may be, and that we'll be with them again next year, in sorrow and in joy.

<snip>

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/04/you-may-leave-boston-but-boston-never-leaves-you/275018/?google_editors_picks=true

[Raven]

1. Very true. I lived 1/2 block from Heartbreak Hill for

20+ years and it was a ritual to walk down to Commonwealth Avenue and cheer the runners on. Not just the elite runners but the folks who struggled and limped and almost crawled their way to the finish line. I've walked the Marathon route (never run it) for charity and even walking it is a challenge. Newton has 7 hills, Heartbreak is the last and not that steep, but what makes it a killer is that it is the LAST hill. The people who have the grit to make it over that last hill have a downhill run into Boston from that point.

I was born, raised, and spent most of my working life in Boston. I carry that town in my heart although I don't live there anymore. I don't miss the traffic, the noise or the organized chaos of that town but it will always be my place, my touchstone.

[cali]

2. Me too Raven. I lived in Brighton, Brookline, Cambridge, JP, Allston and

downtown over a period of 12 years, from the time I was 18 until I was 29.

[Raven]

4. I'll bet you were one of those pesky

U-Haul people.

[KaryninMiami]

3. It's true. I went to Emerson College in the mid-late 70's and lived there till 90

but grew up in NY and now live in Miami. I'm part New Yorker- still feel it in my heart when there's something going on in NY - was blown away by Sandy and of course, during 911-as a New Yorker, as a Bostonian and as an American (etc.) but there's a very deep connection with Boston that will never go away- I grew up there, became an adult there, had my first apartment and my first car and my first job there and even my first long love there (and biggest heartbreak come to think of it) and it will always and forever, be an important part of who I am. This event has wounded me to the core- had no idea really how connected I was to this city until this happened but it's true and it is something I am proud to admit. Boston is in my heart and in my soul and as the writer says, "we never really left, no matter how far away we may be".

[OneMoreDemocrat]

5. Just waiting for the inevitable...

'We are all Bostonians now' or some such.

[snooper2]

6. I thought that was Austin

happy stories good right now-