Keep Running...

My last post was written before the cascade of final papers, projects, and exams began. As alums, you can probably sympathize and understand why you haven't heard from me in a while! Anyway, it's all over now and I'm home before returning back to MIT for the summer.

There's just one fun event I thought I'd mention before we officially move from Spring semester to Summer! Ironically, this event is very similar to my last few weeks of school...minus the enthusiastic cheering...

This year, the Boston Marathon took place on an overcast day that got very cold after a while (or at least seemed very cold, walking across the bridge afterwards...although I felt bad for complaining, since I was walking a mile and not 26.) My experience with the marathon was most unique last year though, when I saw it for the very first time. I remember seeing hoards of runners and hearing a continuous wave of cheering and screaming. People from the crowd were yelling out names and encouragement and at first I thought I happened to come by at a time when the family members of some bystanders were passing through. HA! After a bit, I realized that wasn't the case at all! Here were absolute strangers, running twenty six point two miles through the streets of Boston and those same streets were lined with people they've never met before... cheering their names, clapping, yelling, screaming for them. "You're almost there!" "Go Julie's Dad!" "Yeah Dana Farber- you can do it!" over and over. It was perfect - a display of affection I've never witnessed before, and frankly did not know existed. You know those once-in-a-blue-moon situations that renew your faith in humanity? The Boston Marathon is it.

Agree? Am I being overly sentimental? I'm not sure when the Boston Marathon first started - but has it always been a favorite event of MIT students? Alums, do you remember getting the day off for the race like we do now?