Well I’m leaving Boston in two weeks. Unsure of what I’m doing for xmas. I can leave as soon as the 22nd of Dec, and I have to be in Tuscaloosa by the 8th of Jan. I kinda just want some nice unstructured time to myself without obligation. What was my time in Boston like? uhhhh, quite a interesting one. I showed up around the 15th of August and met my first landlord Ted. Really solid dude, even picked me up from south station. Bought my first moped the 17th of Aug and helment + jacket on the 18th. (I would later start working two ish days a week for the guy I bought the helmet from) Also a really solid dude. Gave me lots of ramen and later on a bed + cabinets. I helped out a bit with east campus’s fort build and started buying and selling mopeds. Along with fixing the mopeds too. Fixed a few bikes for the guy in braintree, gave me some saddle bags, pizza, and $100, not a bad deal. Around September I booked a flight to New Jersey to take some aptitude tests for this merchant mariner school called SIU. Pretty simple test, but it was similar to how I would imagine recruiters for the armed services would be. “you can earn x/year” I asked the guy if I could see some of the contracts that I would be getting after and it was clear that the pay was 1/3 to 1/2 what the guy was saying. He didnt want me to keep reading the contract and pretty much took it from me. Guess being able to read pays off. That program is for unlicensed mariners. Basically shorthand for “you get less money and do more grunt work.”(equivelent to enlisted vs officer) Licensed mariners (officer eq) dont do too bad money wise though, and I’m still considering it. About this time I bought a honda civic and spent two days and about a thousand dollars all said and done trying to fix terrible terrible brakes. I thought it had brake fluid, but I was looking at the clutch fluid (fill caps both say brake fluid). Replaced the rotors and pads over like two days in a parking lot before I realized that the lines were rusted to shit. Got it towed back to my apartment in dorchester, got the lines professionally fixed (all brake line hardware at most major auto stores says not for pressure use or something similar). I didnt want to put that stuff on so I took it to the shop at the end of my street and they probobly just put that same stuff on, but whatever. That car almost got towed because the registration was out of date. Walked out to check on it and there was just a tow truck waiting. After a few minutes I asked why they were there and they just told me “we’re here for your car bro” but they let me just drive it away. (you dont have to legally register a car for 10 days after purchase in MA, and I had insurance). quite interesting, and a fun peppy car, but having a car, and especially a manual, is a fkn nightmare in boston. Sold it at a thousand dollar loss all said and done. I went to a family reunion in arkansas for a few days which was nice but it was becoming apparent that living in dorchester was going to be a nightmare. Searched for three days, found an apartment, signed a lease, moved in. living here about two months and its a pretty good pad. Smaller than a parking space but it’s just startin to feel like mine. About as big as bender’s in futurama lol. Maybe a tad bit bigger. The MIT Job started picking up more which was cool. Turns out two of the smd resistors had their pads crossed. Solved it yay! and I started desigining the next revisions. Met some fun people and dressed up as the narrator from fight club in a two piece halloween costume. Started helping out at MIT sea grant, but it was never going to be a paid position so I decided to focus soley on my two other paid positions. Caught a greyhound to NYC and went to the MOMA and caught another one the same day back at 2am, god living next to south station is great. bought more mopeds and motorcycles and sold em. Honda groms are fun, peppy, and most importantly reliable, might want another in alabama. I went to the museum of fine arts with someone quite nice and had a blast.

That’s the plan at the moment. Go to tuscaloosa, get an EE degree, fix some more old cars. Some people think I’ll be borred and they may be right. Although, I think the worst part about living in the south (atleast in my experience) is that if you’re out in the middle of nowhere, uhhh, you’re out in the middle of nowhere and you cant hangout with people all the time. College seems to be a good remedy to this. It’s cheap and they gave me about 1/5th of a degree already in college credits so that’s a plus. Also, having done the job of an electrical engineer for a bit, and like a life of building things, I think I’ll be ok with classes. Why is this my choice? Well I dont want to make $20 an hour for the rest of my life, and the cheapest two year degree program that leads to a four year degree program in boston will run you about 8 times more in tuition alone (atleast in my case) which is off the rails insanity for the literal cheapest option. It’s clear bama wants warm bodies and minds and I respect their strategy. Theil lays out a few options for a college can be. is it a investment in the future, a four year party, an insurance policy, or an exclusive club. I’d say what I hope to get out of going to college is not the nightclub, somewhat insurance, a fair bit of a four year party, and a fair bit of an investment in being able to do what I want to do in the future. Breakdown: 0% exclusive club, 10% insurance, and maybe an even split between party/investment. I define “party” as a chance to meet cool people and having lots of free time to do whatever I want, a “consumption” good.

I think it’s the right choice. I have a bit more work to do, but overall I feel I’ve done what I came here to do, and my time in Boston is done. Pretty fun. I feel like I learned what It’s like in a limited capacity to be an adult. I worked, paid rent, food, clothes, transportation etc. I also learned some important buisness lessons too. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, how to negotiate more effectively, how to smell bullshit, words (to some) mean nothing and shouldnt be trusted, dont ever trust an IOU without sufficent collateral, and 80% of success is showing up. I’d wager 10% more is effort, and the other 10% is luck. Many mistakes, many lessons learned.

There are also many great people in the world who’s words I would trust. I would like to thank my professor for giving me a shot, my landlord Ted for warm meals with cheap rent, and my other boss Moses for the moto gear, ramen, bed and side gig.

au revoir