boston

There is something about being in another city.

You walk around and you wonder what other people are thinking, what their day is like, where they work, where they've just come from, where they'll go home to at night. What is their favorite food? Do the floors creak when they walk in the door? Is there anybody waiting?

This is my fourth trip to Boston. We arrived yesterday evening and are leaving tomorrow afternoon -- and nearly every second is filled with some kind of work-related activity.

But I still think about what I was like seven years ago, when I was applying to grad schools, and I could have -- maybe could have -- ended up in this very city. So strange to think about how that would've changed everything.