2005-08-11 - 10:01 a.m.
I�ve been in Denver since Sunday night and in September I�m moving to Chicago for a new phase in life. I think that�s a full version upgrade to Geoff 8.0. But I�ve been thinking about my time in Providence and how I simply couldn�t have done it without a lot of people.
So here�s to the people who�ve been so important to my life here. Here�s to Jill. She was the first person I met at Brown. When I doubted I had any capacity or right to go back to college from a random and colorful real life, she exemplified someone who had done just that. Although she�s often a mysterious presence, going off the radar for long stretches, she appears out of nowhere when I least expect it and most need it.
When I�m stressing out at Starbucks over a term paper, she materializes to edit and talk me through the end (and get me to actually turn it in). When I�m devastated that an ex has become a prostitute, she takes me to dinner and listens to my trauma. When I traumatically fall on my face the night before a final and fail it, she emails my professor unprompted and asks him to cut me some slack.
I could go on, but perhaps her finest hour in my mind was when I walked through the bus tunnel to Thayer St. At the end of the tunnel was a convenience store and Jill, waiting for me in a car. It was a beautiful moment and made more sense than I ever expected.
Here�s to my regular-age undergrad friend who graduated last year. We met in a �Downtown Development� seminar my first semester here and bonded over a shared interest in urban issues. We�ve drunk many a beer in many a crummy dive in these parts. He�s always seemed a bit dissatisfied, searching for more. That�s just how it should be.
He worked in local politics back home in Chicago last year and is starting Harvard Law School this fall. I have complete confidence that he�ll get whatever he wants once he figures it out. Although he seems to think I�m pretty cool, the secret truth is that he�s much smarter than me.
Here�s to my regular-age undergrad friend who�ll graduate next year. She�s punk as fuck, although I�m not sure how much she realizes this. I�ve known her since my first year here and she�s always treated me right, never condescendingly �helpful� (even when she�s doing random chores for me) or too hands-off.
She�s pursuing health care and she�ll make an outstanding practitioner because, unlike most pre-meds, she actually cares about healing people. A lot. She�s seen me at my worst, physically and mentally, and held my hand while I cried. Maybe I�m a wuss for turning to someone to take care of me, but I don�t really care cause she�s so cool.
Here�s to Josh, who I often fear I lean on too hard (especially last summer when I was having a hard time coming to terms with disability). A former Microsoftie, he runs his own software company now while going to Brown. Yet he still always has time to get dinner. With his youthful looks, he was the first RUE to date a regular-age undergrad. The rest of us were awed and nonplussed. Was this okay? (Maybe.)
Josh entered as a RUE with me. He was my partner for the class business plan, inspired by his father�s use of a wheelchair, which lead to my current project. When he graduates in December, he�ll still be more successful than you or me. I aspire to a tenth of his acumen.
Here�s to a RUE friend who I first met at a cookout I threw my first month here, before I really knew anybody. She noticed my house in Wayland Square was on her drive to school and offered to pick me up en route. I wasn�t too visibly gimpy yet, but I think she could tell something was wrong as the year went on. She totally rolled with it when I came out to her, which meant a lot.
She graduated with me, despite the break up of a long term relationship, despite realizing she didn�t actually want to devote her life to her field of study, despite any number of things that would have sent me off track. She�s already lived a dozen lives in a dozen places and I hope to be as beautiful as her while starting myself again.
Here�s to Penelope, who first sought me out because my Friendster profile said I was back in kollege at Brown and invited me to coffee. Everyone should be that proactive. She�s a fellow hardcore fan (and fellow New Yorker) and I hope I started her on the right path by taking her to a Fat Day show at AS220.
She was the first new friend I made as gimpy Geoff. (I fell on my face the first time we met.) She�s always been my girl. She�ll finish in 2008 and I have much respect for anyone who starts as a freshman at our age. But I�m a little jealous of her future time here. I sometimes want to do it again.
And here�s to all my fellow RUEs, all people of whom I�m in awe. They had extraordinary lives before going back (one woman I�m particularly impressed by has a son who�s a Brown alum, making her probably the Ivy League�s first reverse legacy). Many found love here, partners and spouses. But more than that even, all of us learned. We all set out to do what we wanted by coming here. It�s taken more guts than you�d think. And I know that I could not have done this alone.
A friend once commented that Providence is a good place to heal. I suppose it has indeed been a great environment for me. But it�s much more than that. Few places display more clearly how cities are vital, living organisms. Providence hit the skids and bounced back. I can relate.
Learn from being here, if you�re here. It took a lot of hard work to make this a charming place. I will invest the same time and effort in my own life to come off so nicely. I�ll miss this town.
� 2005 Geoff Gladstone
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