This post has been brewing for quite some time. Seriously over the last 3 months and in a more general sense over the last 4 years.
I suppose as I’ve become more entrenching in technology and innovation my perspective on Cambridge has changed over the past 4 years but it has really come full circle for me as I’ve had to face the ugly truth.
When I was a punkish undergrad running the streets of Boston at Northeastern, I embraced the obligatory NU chip on the shoulder. Can you blame us? All these great schools around Boston that get all this press about how great they are. Sure a lot of it is more than warranted but there’s a ton of BS out there and I always just wanted the Huskies to get our fair shake. I thought we were pretty kick ass with a lot to offer the world. I guess I subconsciously took it out on Cambridge when the top “Boston” schools were all in Cambridge.
But the “Ugly Truth” is that I’m one of those that I used to love to mock. Call it hypocrisy, ignorance or growth. No matter how you look at it, I’ve evolved to relate more to those rolling the streets in Cambridge than to that punk 20-year-old undergrad with a chip on his shoulder. This person I’ve become really appreciates all that Cambridge has to offer in all it’s intense quirky glory.
I think it was the public bike repair stations that pushed me over the edge as I was walking to go get a cup of coffee in Kendall Square.
