'I Love it Here' - 1.01
I love it here. I'm talking about Worcester — I'm a transplant, a recent college graduate and Worcesterite of four years. I come from Northern Virginia, which has one of the highest standards of living out of any area of the United States. And yet I love Worcester. I'll try and explain to you why.
My fellow students would sometimes cast me "you're crazy" looks when I'd wax on about Worcester's beautiful parks, wonderful eateries and hidden treasures. But I didn't care. Where I grew up, nobody complained about where they lived. Then again, nobody truly seemed to love where they lived, either. And four years of living in Worcester has taught me why: Nobody where I grew up actually lived anywhere. The area was so homogenized, it made almost no difference where you lived at all: it always took you an hour to get to work, and you were always a five-minute drive from the same bland strip mall.
I see Worcester and I see something unique. Worcester has character. And by "has character" I don't mean "it's run-down and scary." I mean that Worcester is a city, in the truest sense of the word. This city is a living, breathing thing. Sometimes, in some places, it's damaged and in other places it's flourishing.
I am fascinated by the phenomenon that, nine times out of ten, after four years of residence, the students who attend a given college will choose to learn close to nothing about the city in which they live.
In order to reap what the city has to give, you have to give something to the city. I'm not talking about taxes. I'm talking about giving Worcester a piece of your heart. Take the time to get to know the city. This could mean volunteering at any of our wonderful neighborhood centers — I learned about a whole bunch of great places through my work at the Pleasant Street Neighborhood Network Center. But you don't have to volunteer to learn about where you live; just take a walk around your neighborhood. I was living in my first apartment for four months before I realized that I could just walk around my neighborhood and observe.
We move by places so fast in our cars, or even when we're walking with a purpose, but when we take the time to wander, we can truly see what's around us for the first time. This may sound weird, but look at the paint peeling off the side of the house down the street. Touch one of the flowers growing in the cracks of the pavement. Smell the oxidized brass of the tiny corner side memorial for a fallen WWI soldier. Learn about these secret places and make them your own.
Drive down Shrewsbury Street or Highland Street on a Friday night with the windows down, listen to the people yelling, smell the restaurants, and admire the lamp-lined strip rolling ahead. Watch the sun come up from Bancroft Tower. These are some of my secret places. These are the things that I'll remember about Worcester.
Love a person, and sometimes the person loves you back. Love a city, and sometimes the city loves you back. Give it a shot.
