flâneur

I Like Me Better When I'm With Them - Alex Chueh

alexanderao.substack.com · 3,069 words · saved by 1 readers

“Well, I’m still in Cambridge, working the same job. My parents are doing well. Wait, I do have a big life update. I’m friends with a bunch of musicians!” Oh, that’s cool! “I’m not sure I can do justice to how cool, but I’ll try…” Here are a few things within a ten-minute walk of the Berklee College of Music: a major league ballpark, a huge public library, Boston’s densest shopping street, and the headquarters of a niche religion, anchored by a giant reflecting pool. No wonder, then, that this one-of-a-kind school is an unassuming place. Its dense campus, nestled along two of the city’s busiest thoroughfares, is overshadowed by the chaos surrounding it. On the adjacent side streets, students’ apartments blend seamlessly into stretches of well-preserved rowhouses. The only evidence something’s a little different? All the guitar cases hauled backpack-style by people shuttling between classes. I was raised two miles and change from Berklee, but until recently could’ve told you more about

These days, every catch-up with someone I haven’t seen in months goes the same way. So what’s up with you? “Well, I’m still in Cambridge, working the same job. My parents are doing well. Wait, I do have a big life update. I’m friends with a bunch of musicians!” Oh, that’s cool! “I’m not sure I can do justice to how cool, but I’ll try…” Here are a few things within a ten-minute walk of the Berklee College of Music: a major league ballpark, a huge public library, Boston’s densest shopping street, and the headquarters of a niche religion, anchored by a giant reflecting pool. No wonder,…

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