Northampton and the Smith experience
Katherine Hanson
Issue date: 12/10/09 Section: Opinions
As a sophomore student attending Smith, I tend to take a firmly "the-glass-is-half-full" view of life here. Northampton may not be for everyone - no place is - but it's one of the things that make life at Smith College enjoyable.
I should admit my biases up front: I grew up in Boca Raton, Fla., a city that's located one hour north of Miami. The only time I ever saw colored leaves before coming here was when I attended my grandpa Leo's funeral in Iowa in 1998, and the only time I saw "snow" was when it frosted heavily in my great-aunt's backyard in Maryland one night when I visited her for a week in 1999.
So, yes, even in my second year here, I'm still pretty charmed by the seasonal changes, and I really enjoy exploring different areas of Northampton in order to enjoy those changes a little more richly.
For example, it has become a new Halloween tradition for me to walk downtown to see the trick-or-treating in the early evening there before walking around the calm, cool residential neighborhoods - ideally through blocks that I haven't walked through before - to appreciate the leaves and Halloween decorations.
At any time of year, I love seeing the old New England-style homes, especially when they have flower gardens, when I go on walks. And downtown Northampton, with its famed quirks and eccentricities, is enjoyable as well. I like how strongly individualism seems to be encouraged there, whether or not it's a form of individualism of which I personally approve. If it were only what I liked, that would be dull.
Even the initially discomfiting aspects of Northampton have at least helped give me a better, more seasoned perspective. In Boca Raton, there are laws in place that make it difficult for people who are homeless to reside there; subsequently, the relatively conspicuous homeless presence in downtown Northampton made me a little nervous the first year I was here. But over the course of my first school year here, I realized that I had been living in a massive bubble in Boca Raton and that my nervousness was largely a case of ignorance and classism.
I should admit my biases up front: I grew up in Boca Raton, Fla., a city that's located one hour north of Miami. The only time I ever saw colored leaves before coming here was when I attended my grandpa Leo's funeral in Iowa in 1998, and the only time I saw "snow" was when it frosted heavily in my great-aunt's backyard in Maryland one night when I visited her for a week in 1999.
So, yes, even in my second year here, I'm still pretty charmed by the seasonal changes, and I really enjoy exploring different areas of Northampton in order to enjoy those changes a little more richly.
For example, it has become a new Halloween tradition for me to walk downtown to see the trick-or-treating in the early evening there before walking around the calm, cool residential neighborhoods - ideally through blocks that I haven't walked through before - to appreciate the leaves and Halloween decorations.
At any time of year, I love seeing the old New England-style homes, especially when they have flower gardens, when I go on walks. And downtown Northampton, with its famed quirks and eccentricities, is enjoyable as well. I like how strongly individualism seems to be encouraged there, whether or not it's a form of individualism of which I personally approve. If it were only what I liked, that would be dull.
Even the initially discomfiting aspects of Northampton have at least helped give me a better, more seasoned perspective. In Boca Raton, there are laws in place that make it difficult for people who are homeless to reside there; subsequently, the relatively conspicuous homeless presence in downtown Northampton made me a little nervous the first year I was here. But over the course of my first school year here, I realized that I had been living in a massive bubble in Boca Raton and that my nervousness was largely a case of ignorance and classism.
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