[dar-list] the [beginning] of the summer

[Amy Whipple]

I've always been struck by how, in college, the beginning of the summer so
closely resembles "The End of the Summer."  I've packed dorm rooms to go
back home, stayed in my apartment as the town buzzed around me.  A month
ago, I watched as everyone packed their belongings and headed off into the
worlds they previously knew or the worlds they were about to create.  

As I started to load my last carfull of things (and it's taken way too many
at this point), I realized that I, too, had finally come to the moment where
"we push ourselves ahead."  A sky that started out so colorful this morning
crept to a drizzly gray by afternoon, where it's landed in that odd
muggy-chill of an early summer night in Virginia.  A few random things
surround me, and I've got my sleeping bag on the floor for one last night
in, what I've deemed the last couple of days as, a heroin den.  But it's sad
to leave my absolutely beautiful apartment behind in a town that, when I
first heard "The End of the Summer," I never thought I'd understand, let
alone conquer.  Mrs. Dalloway looks about how I feel, so confused to see all
of her things gone, with just a smattering of toys littering the floor.

In the last month or so, I've found myself gravitating heavily to Dar and
Mary Chapin Carpenter, the two people whose music really helped me through
the awful transition of freshman year.  But so much has changed, so much
time has passed.  Two degrees and one-fourth of my life later, I'm left to
know that part of me is still that eighteen-year-old girl.  And, yet, when I
think about her, I sometimes think, Was that really me?  It's interesting
how much Dar and MCC have changed in their music in the last six years as
well.  It's like there's so much growing up to be had, even when you're
technically already all grown up.

I also wonder if Pittsburgh will give me new music -- a thought I had to a
smaller degree as I finished undergrad and headed into the graduate program.
Is there someone new who will lead me through a transition that rivals only
the one I made six years ago?  Or will it be Dar, MCC, and Susan, providing
a comfort zone that feels so protective?  I also wonder if it will always be
this hard, moving on from one place to another?  When do I finally get to
say, here, this is where I want to settle?  Or will there always be the push
of, You must move on, you can't stay here forever?

 

The End of the Summer (album) has been out now for ten years.  I feel that,
perhaps, when the actual end of the summer comes, we should have the best
card exchange ever.  It just seems right, you know?

 

Okay, Dar-listers, that's enough for now.

 

Best,

Amy