The weather has stayed the same but the change is still in the air. I realized that seasons had shifted last week when I drove down City Park Ave., a street that's been quiet all summer, and ran right into clogged street full of cars and people milling about on the sidewalk, spilling out of nearby Delgado Community College.
Whoa. People have to go back to school. Its not something that's going to change my schedule but it definitely impacts me. In the city of NO there are a number of institutions that make us a solid college town. Uptown there is Tulane University and Loyola right next door (both of these sprawl up and down St. Charles and allthe way to S. Claiborne). Then down Carrollton by the 17th street canal is historically black Xavier. Then deeper into Midcity is Delgado and Universtiy of New Orleans by the lake. That's not including all the Tulane & LSU med schools and other graduate stuff uptown and downtown. That's a lot of people coming back to the city at the end of August.
Some people have even been asking me "Does it feel strange for you to not be going back to school?" Now I understand the innocence in this question; for 17 of my 22 years on this world I have spent every August preparing myself to be reinstitutionalized like thousands of others. But that is an old habit that did not die hard. The answer of course is NO, it feels great not to have to go back to school. I've waited my whole life for this week in August. Of course I have new responsibilities but I look forward to dealing with them in September on my own terms.
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