Places
photo by prashant kolachala
Places
third-year alexis kelley
Google Map Notifications: ON
16hr 15 min to near State Street, Boston MA
I glance down at my phone as the notification pops up on top of the screensaver of my friends on that very street. It’s been a week since being back from spending two months in Boston. Funny how my phone still thinks I should still be there. I guess I would agree with it if that was an option. My heart is so quick to get attached to places. What do you call wanderlust that wants to go everywhere and see everything, but misses wherever she was last?
8 min to UGA Main Library
No matter what season or semester of my college semester, this has always been a spot held in high esteem. I love the way it smells. The mix of coffee and bagels and billions of pages filled with thoughts of people smarter than me. It’s a place of inspiration. A place where I can sit and stare at people passing through north campus or find a spot upstairs and watch the sun set over Sanford Stadium. Here is where I do my work. Here is where my dreams distract me.
13 min to near Greensboro Hwy, Watkinsville GA
Again my phone knows where I want to go. Now, a few weeks into the semester, I have become all too predictable. Wednesday afternoons I go to the Watty Jit Joes. I love pulling into the parking lot where the red roofed building promises an iced coffee with a little bit of cream. And I know that it will be filled with at least one person I know because somehow this is where we all congregate. Maybe I’ll be productive or maybe I’ll stare out the window wall while looking up flight prices to see the rest of the world.
6 min to Intramural Fields Deck
Once again, before I even get into the car, my phone knows where I want to go. This time, it’s a gorgeous day. Armed with Cane’s and a picnic blanket, my trunk is packed with a speaker, roller skates, a frisbee, and a tennis racket. Here is where I can play outside. This is where I picnic by the lake, or at the top of the parking deck during sunset. Or where I gather to play some sort of game with my friends, or just skate around in my hand painted roller skates with my roommates. Here is the perfect spot to get my energy out with friends. It’s where I can do something about my restlessness.
Home
The starting point to all of these directions. This is where I make sense of my weird attachment to places. It’s where I sit now, writing these thoughts down. Here I am surrounded by my favorite books and my favorite colors and pictures of my favorite people taped and hung all over my walls. A candle is lit, music is playing and I’m thinking of just how full my life is. Yes, there’s a hunger for more. Most of me wants to explore forever and take pictures of all the breathtaking views all over the world. But there’s still a part of me that wants to hang those pictures on the walls of my home. Part of me is grounded by the way a spot feels comfortable, by how I can recall all the passing moments that build something. That build me, remind me that life is sweet, and make me pause to savor these places.