Right Back Where I Started

View of the Student Center at University of Scranton on a snowy day

1. My House: I was born in —--- —--- and attended public school grades 1-8 and then it was off to private school. I probably romanticize middle school memories like getting the lead in Guys and Dolls. Now I don’t care who sees me anymore and what they think. I wish I had been that way in school (meaning eighth grade). I love the library but they are currently tearing it down and rebuilding it. When I was seventeen I started hanging out in sketchy places like parking lots and the woods where I would usually get drunk with my boyfriend and his friends. A family bought 7-11 and fired all my friends who worked there so I try to spend as little time there as possible (my dad refuses to shop there at all). There were a lot of great things about my town including a town soccer league I played in for ten seasons (I loved soccer). When I returned to my hometown after college, I became involved in local writing groups and the town started to feel a lot more like home.

2. Lynett. Lynett was my college dorm where it almost always felt like home. My roommate moved out after two weeks so I was on my own but I had my best friend across the hall. I preferred solo living so I could stumble in smelling of booze at any time of the night. Also I could bring my boyfriends back to my room (Mike, one of my college boyfriends had his own apartment so half the time I wasn’t there). I loved Lynett. We’d gather to watch American Horror Story and had karaoke nights and a poetry slam (anything “arts” themed).

3. Gavigan was the sophomore dorms. I had a roommate (Samantha) and was quadmates with my best friend. Samantha turned out to be a backstabber, screenshotting my messages and sending them to my best guy friend after me and him had a fight. She also shredded me behind my back calling me ugly and saying I was a whore. I understand I must have been a very difficult roommate. I cried nearly every day. And at the end I disappeared. I was hospitalized several times while we lived together. My favorite activity was when we had Friendsgiving in the lounge and Samantha made me a lovely Winnie the Pooh poster. It must have taken hours. Surely someone who slaves away on a project like that couldn’t completely hate me. Right?

4. The —------- household. One of my favorites places on Earth and, for a long time, my second home. After I was released from the hospital for the first time, Debbie and Dave (my best friends parents) were waiting at the door. I helped their oldest son (whom I had a crush on) decorate the porch (“helped” I just froze my butt off trying to get his attention). When I visited in January he made me an entire Thanksgiving feast (because I was in the hospital and missed Thanksgiving) and I stayed up all night with Debbie making cookies and trading stories. Unfortunately I haven’t seen them in a while. I think about them often.