Ten Things...

... I like about Hyde Park (part one):

1. It's away from the big city.

At first that annoyed me, but now I'm beginning to enjoy it. I like the hustle and bustle of downtown but I also enjoy not living among skyscrapers.

2. It's name doesn't lie.

There are literally parks on every street, and lawns and trees galore. It's much greener than I expected it would be... I guess I better enjoy that while I can.

3. It has everything you need, and it doesn't have everything you want.

For me, that's good. It means I have to make special trips downtown to look at clothes, shoes, and unnecessary hair products. Of course I have the time now so I've been making those special trips, but during school, there's no danger of me drifting past a cute shirt in a storefront on the way back from class.

4. It's close to campus.

Which is obviously why I moved here. And campus is beautiful. I've already spent too much time drifting around the quad and the library and the bookstore pretending I've actually already started classes.

5. It epitomizes diversity.

I took one tiny baby step toward living in a racially diverse environment when I left home and moved to Amherst. And then perhaps took another baby step to the side when I started teaching at Berkshire. But essentially, in my brief life experience, the word diversity was only something that came out of an admissions officer's mouth, followed by a percentage under 20, in a weak, self-congratulatory tone of voice. Here diversity is real. Any kind of person you can imagine lives here. Rich, poor, black, white, Asian, young, old, conservative, liberal- you'll see it all here. I don't want to sound proud of this fact, as if I'm somehow a better person for living here, because that's not true. If anything, I've discovered as I come into contact with all these different representations of humanity just how many preconceived judgments I've made about people I've never met before. It's disturbing and mind-blowing and often uncomfortable. But good in some way I can't really wrap my head around.

Stay tuned for numbers 6 through 10...