when i went to boarding school in 11th grade, the girls on my hall were this amazing group of young women who were funny and goofy and sweet and smart and we had great adventures together. i had been the "smart kid" at my old high school, but here i was an average kid, and i loved that - loved being surrounded by other smart kids and fitting in in a way i hadn't at my old school. in a life where i am incredibly lucky to have made special special friends in many places, these friends were perhaps my first special friends.
this boarding school had a ton of homework, and my life was school and homework and soccer and hanging out with friends in our dorm rooms and occasional forays into town for a cheap burrito. my memory of 11th grade also includes a LOT of time spent in front of my hand-me-down desktop computer, playing heroes of might and magic with my friend sara, with katie occasionally sprawled out on the bed next to us offering her critique of the situation. tracy chapman's self-titled album played on the CD player perched on the shelf above the computer, and if the game was particularly good we would have to push play again when the album ended. this sounds like the smallest pleasure in life, but it was awesome.
this morning i heard sam smith's version of "fast car" on the radio and fell in love with that song all over again.
you know those songs that take you immediately back to a specific time and place? this one takes me to 2C in 1999 and to the friends who surrounded me there.
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