Dear New Haven,
Goodbye… for now. Don’t worry, it’s not goodbye forever. I will, of course, be back to visit, and often. And I promise to stop by each time I go to IKEA. There are many things I will miss about you. I will miss your neighborhood markets and delicious delis. I will miss the view of the statue atop East Rock watching down over Foster St. I will miss food cart adventures – arepas, pad thai, and the way my eyes would light up when I saw the Cheese Truck. I will miss the Yale architecture that pretends to look older than it is. I will even miss receiving emails from Chief Ronnell Higgins (though not the news they carry).
There are a few things I won’t miss. I won’t miss the crappy roads and horrors of I-95. I won’t miss how unfriendly New Haven can be. I won’t miss Yale’s unexplicable tolerance for sexual harassment. And I especially won’t miss the general anxiety that hovers like a thick fog over the 12,000 Yale students of the city.
I know you don’t want to hear about the new city I’ve found, but the truth is…I love Middletown. It has only been a few days, and perhaps it is just a rebound, but at least I’m happy. I’ll take it one day at a time.
So for now, Goodbye New Haven. Goodbye Yale. Goodbye GPSCY (oh wait, I hardly even said hello!). Goodbye Prime 16 and Archie’s and Bar. Goodbye Atticus and Nica’s and Lulu’s. Goodbye Divinity quad and sherry hour and Glee Club Room. Goodbye Sterling and Beinecke and… Hendrie Hall. Goodbye Orange St and Whitney Ave and Prospect. It was a good two years, and I will never forget the times we spent together.
Next time I see you, it will be as a visitor, not as a resident!
Don’t forget me…
love,
manda
Songbird Sings 