Not sure what — but there you go
Where? There. Back to 1977.
Back to 7/7/77 in particular which I clearly remember as some kind of big deal “date palindrome”.
It looked and felt just like every other day to me, but what do I know?
To me 7/7/77 was another in a string of days notable mainly because it was almost smack in the middle of the time between my graduation from high school and going off to college.
I didn’t fully comprehend what was happening: counting down the days to moving out of the home I grew up in (mostly, since age 10), with minor stops back home for holidays and a Summer or two.
There’s a lot wrapped up in there. It’s much more than just a physical move from one place to another, it’s also transitioning every detail of your everyday life: the space you sleep in, the hallways and outdoor spaces you walk, the people you meet, the things you do with your time, the choices you have in front of you every second of every day.
Everything is suddenly not just different but the sense of freedom and infinite choices is right in front of you, all the time. It’s exhilirating, and some of us do better than others with infinite choces.
And all of this is completely separate from the college experience itself, and everything that entails.
I loved it. The freedom, much more than the college experience, at least that first year. Later on the college experience caught up with the freedom side of it.
The reasons I was ready for unlimited freedom are probably worth exploring, but that’s for another day.
So I guess 7/7/77 does have some sort of meaning for me after all, after thinking about this for a bit.