Journeys I have Taken

I suppose most journeys start deep within a person's need for adventure. I believe that sometimes the day-to-day dullness can become too much to bear and one feels the urge to break free. I also like to believe that there lies a voyager somewhere inside all of us wanting to escape said monotony. If what I believe is true, my journey started out as most: feeling the need to run away to find myself. In my country, going away to the continental United States is a right of passage every other young adult goes through. As high school and my first two years in college flew by, I thought I was part of the ones that stayed behind on the island, and I was content with this. However, as the second semester of my sophomore year was starting I woke up one day wanting to know what else was out there for me. Was I going to wake up early each day to go to school, study, come back home, study some more, and sleep my college years away? Who was I kidding, monotony had struck and it got me good. Somewhere between graduating high school and enrolling in college I followed the general flow and ended up going to the college that was closest to my high school and where everybody else from my graduating class was going. Don't get me wrong, I love my university, but I couldn't help myself from thinking if I had made the right choice or if I even had choices.

I did not waste any more time pondering on the what-ifs in my life and immediately applied for colleges in the New England area. When I mention New England I really mean Massachusetts, and when I say Massachusetts I really only mean Boston. After giving it careful thought I narrowed my choices down to two: Boston University or Northeastern University. In the end BU won by a landslide. In the blink of an eye my sophomore year ended, Summer was over, and I found myself in a Boston supermarket buying cereal for my room. It all happened so fast that I didn't really have time to have it all sink in. I was moving away from my tiny island, the only place I've every truly been comfortable living in, and living on my own. I only knew my boyfriend, who was starting the semester at Lasell College in Newton, Massachusetts, about half an hour train ride outside of Boston. Other than that and my new room mates, I was pretty much alone. Still, I kept an open, yet anxious mind about BU and Boston itself. What really had me excited was the fact that I was about to start writing a completely new chapter in my life, where I would finally discover myself and know what I wanted to do with my life. Before doing the actual move, I had planned a long list of all the things I wanted to do, like: join a club, study a semester abroad in Spain, catch a Red-Sox game, explore the coast of New England, learn French, eat a big bowl of clam chowda' like a true Bostonian, go to museums, and live the life of a student in one of the states with the most exciting college life. After catching that Sox game and devouring the bowl of chowder, things weren't looking as good as they did all the way from Puerto Rico. Since I was there to study I pictured my classes being absolutely life-changing, and in a way I guess they were. After taking an eighty plus student-filled class, I learned to appreciate the warmth and individual attention I had received as a student back home. In Boston, I felt as if though I was just a student number filling a spot in a cold and impersonal room where no one knew who I was or where I came from. On top of cold people, the cold and harsh weather killed my otherwise joyous personality. Bottom line: I wanted out. I acted quickly and was out as soon as I took my last final in December. Some tell me that I didn't give it a good try or that a semester was too short of a time to make the decision of coming back, but I truly believe that the time I spent was enough for me to know that what I wanted to get out life was not located on 157 Bay State Road, Boston University.