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U.S. Campus Life

Good-bye, 1426

By Masako Yamada


さらば、1426

筆者が5年間暮らしたアパート、1426。

Fourteen twenty-six, that's where I've lived for the past five years. By now, I've completely become accustomed to omitting the street name when referring to the apartment; it goes without saying that it's on Commonwealth Ave., one of the main thoroughfares of Boston.

Today, the movers came to take all of my possessions away. For insurance reasons, they had to pack all of the items themselves before loading the stuff onto the truck. This way, they could not be held responsible for damage caused by my amateur packing technique.

Although I didn't have much furniture, it turns out that I had accumulated quite a few things over the years. It took two men a full three hours to pack everything up and put it in the truck. Considering that I had already done quite a bit of preliminary sorting before they arrived - I wanted to make it easier for them to put the things in the boxes - I was surprised that it took so long.

As I rummaged through my closets one last time, I found stacks and stacks of photos. Nowadays, I use a digital camera more often than a real camera, but when I first lived there, I took a lot more real photographs. I spent hours sifting through those photographs, precious hours that I perhaps should have spent working on my thesis defense talk.

The photos brought back great memories of my years at 1426. My roommates have changed over time, and I've shared the apartment with at least 15 other people. I had even forgotten the names of some of these people, but the photos helped me recall them.

I found many photos of the crazy parties that we used to throw at 1426. I lost interest in hosting that kind of party about three years ago, when I realized that I didn't recognize half of the guests who showed up to my own birthday party. However, the photos made me smile. Tucked among those party shots, I found a few photos of my boyfriend from a 1426 party five years ago. I also saw shots of my classmates from the physics department at Boston University; only a few remain now.

Dozens of postcards and letters from the readers of ST also emerged. One of my long-time readers, with whom I've corresponded for years, now lives in Boston. I was astonished to see photos of her from five years ago appear from my closet, since at the time I didn't really know her at all.

After the movers cleared out everything from the room, I cleaned it up. I didn't feel very sad, even after it was empty. In a certain sense, the heyday of my time at 1426 has already passed. One of my first roommates from 1426 now lives down the block with his boyfriend (he's gay). Another roommate from that era lives with his fiancee in Cambridge. I was the last person from that era to remain in 1426. My roommates and I had a great time this year, but they are all three to five years younger than me. Maybe I've felt a bit left over from my "generation."

Besides, in a sense, I won't be leaving. My current roommates will remain in the apartment, so I know I can continue seeing them even after I move. There are still some projects in the lab that I would like to continue working on even after I start my new job, so I will undoubtedly be visiting 1426 in the future.

One of the last things I did in the apartment was to take a long bath in the Jacuzzi in our bathroom. Although our apartment is an old apartment in a student-heavy part of Boston, the kitchen and bathroom are modern and quite luxurious. We have a shower stall with ample hot water (in older buildings, the hot water may run out if too many people use the shower at the same time, or the water pressure may become weak) and a separate whirlpool tub. It is one of the highlights of the apartment. I turned on the jets and sat in the tub for about 30 minutes and then I returned the keys. It was a great way to end my stay in 1426.



Shukan ST: Sept. 13, 2002

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