57. San Diego

Date: Auguest 23, 1995
Age: 18

Today I am in San Diego and Friday I am done out here. I'll see you on Sunday. Are you all ready for NYU?
Love, Dad

From my window at work I look out on Pratt's pretty campus, leafy and spotted with sculptures. If it weren't for a glimpse beyond the entrance gate seen from the far right-hand edge of the window, one wouldn't know you were in Brooklyn.

There seem to be more students about than for most of the summer, but I'm not certain undergraduates have moved onto campus yet. Perhaps this weekend.

My parents reunited, briefly, to drive me to NYU for freshman orientation. My dad's Lincoln Towncar was filled with all my belongings. I remember I brought with me a bunch of paperbacks that I wanted to read during the year, not quite understanding that I'd have little time for pleasure reading. (And if I did, I certainly didn't want to spend my free time reading; I was 18 years old and dying to be let loose in New York City). I think my nerves over leaving home trumped the awkwardness of us all being together, and my parents certainly settled into a "let's get this mission accomplished" mode. Once we arrived in Manhattan, my brother C, who was living in the Village at the time, came over to help out, but also possible to act as a buffer.

My roommates all seemed cool, one was even from Delaware. She dropped out before the semester began, however, after spending most of the week of orientation in North Carolina or Virginia or somewhere down south at her friend's campus where Dave Matthews Band was performing. She returned, realizing that NYU was suitable neither for Dave Matthews nor Greek life, she cried, and we never saw her again.

After I was unpacked, my parents and brother and I grabbed some lunch, and on the way back to my dorm, my mom asked if we should go buy some flowers for my room. I said, no, because I knew it was time for me to go inside, and for them to go home. Everyone understood.

My parents have come together twice since on my behalf: at my college graduation in 1999, and for my colectomy in 2007. Since marriage is not even a remote possibility for me at this point, and I hope beyond hope that my health doesn't take another nosedive like it did last year, I can't imagine when we'll convene again.