“i left the east coast and everything it stands for. i’m living in a place where no one ever asks what college i went to, never mind my SAT scores. i didn’t consciously want to reinvent myself, but i liked the opportunity to start over, sans the burden of the preconceptions of those i went to school with. i haven’t struck it rich and famous. and now i’m wavering, the economic chaos impacting my ability to have hope. but when i’m driving in my car and the right record comes pouring out of the speakers, i feel confident, i believe i can make it.”
— bob lefsetz (via lefsetz.com/wordpress)

we talked about this issue of what i called “east coast snobbery” about colleges at my book club last night, much to the chagrin of the girls in my book club who went to a snobby east coast college. (they’re not snobs, but their school could reasonably be called that.) i do think it’s a uniquely east coast question; when we first moved to oregon, my mother remarked that unlike back east, no one ever asked what school she had gone to when they first met her. (i myself went to a state school, and i thought it was great. i learned more than i thought i needed to know and i made some lifetime friends. that’s really all that should make it a “good” school.)

i moved to the east coast to consciously reinvent myself; i grew up in a sleepy college town that no one ever left, and i didn’t want that. i came to new york, or at least to my idea of what new york is, wanting to make a new me, a stronger, smarter, more fulfilled me. and i’ll agree with lefsetz, the economic situation (especially in new york) has me wavering between hopeful and hopeless sometimes. winter in new york is all about survival, and this winter has been particularly tough. but spring is right around the corner, and there is no better time to be in new york, when the city airs itself out and gets back to the business of being fully alive. i can’t wait to throw open the windows again.