[Introduction: In the Summer of 1985, I worked as a summer associate for Arter & Hadden. I was young, and dumb, wet behind the ears in the big city of Washington. D.C. Twenty-three years old and making more money than I ever had in my life. No more bagging groceries at Ukrops for me/double smile! I had my close knit circle of friends. I was dating an impossibly high reach woman for me. And one day I decided to watch a new release, St. Elmo’s Fire, at a Georgetown theatre. I was coming of age, with a few friends, all of us in our early twenties. I saw my life on the motion picture screen. I felt alignment, resonance.]
A few moments ago, I felt alignment and resonance again.
I overheard the plans of young adults, all women, a year or two out of college. All of the women were the closest of college friends. They are all around the age of twenty-three, as I was in the Summer of 1985.
One cherished friend was planning to live in Brooklyn with her college friends but guess what? Life threw her a curve ball. She got into a master’s degree program in Scotland, the country of her dreams! How could she turn up that opportunity? Brooklyn will always be there.
Another friend just purchased a brownstone in Brooklyn. Good on her, I say! Good on her. One of her friends plans to rent out part of the brownstone.
One friend, the artistic one, just released a new record this Friday. I believe there was a happening record party this weekend in Washington Square Park.
Then, there is the friend who got into Yale and Harvard Law School. She visited both schools and was turned cold by Harvard. Too corporate, too big. She prefers the public interest focus and smaller crowd at Yale Law School. That’s her home come this fall. Besides, she is only a train ride away from Brooklyn and her friends.
Did I mention the tumult of young love? There is a friend who dated this incredible mover and shaker, a wunderkind. They broke up last year. She moved on…until she didn’t. They made up and started this year as a couple only to break up for the second time a week or two ago. Thus is young love. For a broken heart, there is always Brooklyn.
There’s the suburban friend who will be living in her quaint suburban home this summer before joining her friends in Brooklyn. St. Elmo Fire vibes.
There’s the friend who will be working at a WASPish summer camp in the Connecticut countryside this summer. After summer camp comes the obligatory European vacation before joining her friends in Brooklyn.
There’s the friend attending culinary school in Italy. She loves it but is trying to find her way to Brooklyn to be with her friends.
[Conclusion: All roads lead to Brooklyn for these friends coming of age. Do you see the potential for a modern-day coming of age screenplay or novel? Will their friendship survive Brooklyn or will they grow apart as a tree grows in Brooklyn? I am a long ways from the Summer of 1985. I am not as young anymore, not as dumb I hope. However, I find comfort in knowing the cycle of young life in the Big City springs eternal. Perhaps, one of my creative readers will turn this drama of Brooklyn into a short story or television series or movie.]