Eat: Transmet (best damn food in the state of Georgia as far as I'm concerned), Little Italy (the best grease money can buy), Last Resort (good menu selection, if you can stomach the snooty staff), Calientitos (authentic mexican)Shop: Pitaya (cute boutique), Junkman's Daughter's Brother (everything under the sun. really.)
Play: Genco (classic), The Loft (for old time's sake, back when it was the Annex), 283 Bar (fun but chill, slightly "older" crowd. by Athens standards, that means over 19.)
Though we had a great time, I stumbled upon a realization that led to a few other realizations. Number 1): my college days are over. Subsequent realizations: 2) I am either really slow or 3) I have been living in denial. Even though I've been back to Athens a handful of times, it has always been on football weekends when a lot of other friends are around. To be back there this weekend, it felt a bit like a ghost town. And I was a the ghost.
But I'll end on a light note. Later on Sunday, back in Atlanta my friend Dana sent me an old email that she found. I had written it to my roommates when we graduated and left Athens 2 years, 3 months and 1 week ago:
On the way home, i tried to take 120 instead of 85, only to run into a blocked road and a detour. i started to get really pissed off because i didn't know where i was going, but then i just started to laugh. i know its corny, but i couldn't help comparing it to life right now... things don't always go the way you plan... sometimes you have a detour or roadblock along the way... none of us really know where we'll be 6 months, or 6 years from now... but ultimately, you wind up exactly where you're supposed to be. Four years ago, I drove down the same road in the dark, only It was the early morning dark, and my dad was driving me to athens with all my stuff packed in the trunk. I had no idea what to expect from UGA and had no friends there. now four years later, here i am driving home in the dark, already missing my three best friends, with all my shit packed EVERYWHERE, but this time I'm in the drivers seat. As confusing as it is to not know where we're headed, it's also thrilling at times. i sit here typing this in my room — with quite literally, pieces of my life scattered around — and as sad as i am, i have a gut feeling that, cliche as it is, although this is the end of an era, it is the start of a new one.
I'm extremely lucky to still have the amazing friends I met there. And even luckier that they live close by. And really, maybe the luckiest part of all is that I don't have to feel like I'm "getting old" on my own.
1 comment:
It's bittersweet to revisit your past and realize that you can't go back....nor do you want to. Love you - Aunt Pam
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