Boston and Beyond

The second I landed in Boston the air was charged. People were moving around, not as warm or communicating and on a mission to get where they need to go that day. It’s a familiar buzz that major cities have. The lack of lush grass and outdoors replaced by concrete and glass windows and everything is bigger. It always gets me thinking about living in a city again and how the influence of tech and art feels so powerful. Sitting at lunch hearing people talk freely about politics, ads, UX and the changing territory. Sitting in on some lectures at Harvard and feeling so much wisdom and sharp thoughts makes you come alive regardless of your age. It’s hard not to be engaged, to stay up late, to not want to miss a thing.

Yet, not too long into each visit back the familiar burn out creeps back in. The noise, the amount of people and the inner kid in me just wanting to run has translated into the adult version of me that would be working remote and in the mountains or the beach even if that means missing out on connections, it’s a natural consequence I accepted long ago and each visit back reminds me I am still okay with it.

So is there a middle ground? To wanting to connect and wanting to be in the middle of nowhere? I would like to think so. I applaud conversations happening about sleep and taking care of your mental heath. Sure the hustle is important and if you have big dreams and goals then you will need to work hard yet I love seeing the shift of remembering that you are still a person and not a robot. That somewhere between Harvard and the beach there is still more common ground then we think and we can all learn something from each other if we just sit back and listen more. That’s my personal goal these days. To really listen to the world and the conversations around me but most importantly what my inner voice is telling me.

It’s really a beautiful thing.