It’s the first day of spring, it’s snowing in New York, and it’s that time of the year when I miss living in Atlanta badly. In Georgia, the “out like a lamb” portion of March is seventy degrees, and the dogwoods have begun to bud leaving that weird floral smell in the air. The thought of that sounds much better than what I am currently observing out of my window.
A Friday afternoon in late-March makes me think about my days in college in the Atlanta University Center. After a relatively short winter compared to the ones in New York that I grew up in, a semester coming to a close, and everyone fresh off partying out of town for Spring Break everyone is back outside. Everyone would skip that 1 or 2pm class to hang out on the promenade that runs alongside Clark Atlanta University, the parking lot by Morehouse College, or Market Friday at Spelman College. It was all about seeing and being seen.
Those days seem like forever ago. I graduated in 2007, so memories of those afternoons are between eight and eleven years ago. I think what I miss about that time is that while we were all adults it was the last licks of childhood innocence. The only real responsibilities were taking care of our grades and what were we getting into that weekend. It would be dope to relive that time in life again for somewhere between a week and a month.
I haven’t seen most of my friends that I hung out with regularly in college in years and I moved away from Atlanta in 2010. Everyone is either knocking on thirty’s door or have already kicked it down. One of the great things about social media is that we have had the opportunity to watch each other grow up in real time ever since we left college that wasn’t available to those who are just a few years older than us. We may not interact with everyone; but we see everything…kinda like watching Cydney grow up. I mention this because the reason I started this blog was so that almost all of us who were concentrated in one part of Atlanta, Georgia have dispersed to other parts of the country can know what my daughter is up to “Truman Show” style.
Many of the people that I hang out with and have referred to frequently on this blog are people I went to college with and we have got close since I came back home. In fact, everyone who is a major character is. Most of us were just acquaintances and we hang out because we have a common collegiate experience that is more fraternal than those who haven’t matriculated at these institutions will understand.
When Timile got pregnant and we relocated the goal was to move back to Georgia after Cydney was born. Even when Timile was diagnosed with cancer, Atlanta was the home we had planned to get back to eventually. I couldn’t see myself ever going back there to live. I have too much going for me here in New York and I kind of like the idea of letting that be the dream differed that died along with Timile.
It’s almost 3pm and it’s snowing in New York on the first day of spring. I’m looking forward to going outside and playing with my friends again. I’m about to go pick my daughter up from school who just happens to be wearing a Spelman College shirt today.
Single Dadventures 