Taelyr C. Roberts

“I got that off-black Cadillac, midnight drive
I got that gas pedal, leaned back, taking my time…”

Having grown up in a big suburb within a big city, I thought that I had been showed what life in any city would be. I always envisioned the bright lights and the strange people, but to an extent I thought that was it. I thought that there could not have possibly been anything else that could have differed from city life in any other place (with the exception of the epic, majestic nature of the ball from the Dallas, Texas skyline). Now, I realize that I was wrong. After having brushed off the naiveté of my formative, teenage years. I’m beginning to understand what it truly means to live in a city with people drunk literally and metaphorically off of what life has to offer.  I have found myself discovering what that means exactly and the sense of freedom that can come from strolling down Mass Ave. as a solo action of pure rebellion against society’s standards of what women can’t do or with people who have quite literally changed your life and the way that you view it. I have learned to revel in the moments that take place in the middle of the Charles River bridge with symmetrical halves of yourself in two different cities and I have learned to understand that nature is the closest physical representation that we have to feeling God because that body of water is one of the only places where I feel so small, but so hopeful at the exact same time. So I guess in some ways this is my love letter to Boston-to the experiences, to the people, to every joke shared, to every hideaway found that formed into a cavern of solace, to every friend that found a way to shovel a piece of themselves into the depths of my spirit and to the man named Masa who didn’t have a home, but found a way to provide me with joy and a smile. I’ve learned that the lights are bright for a reason. They are meant to shine like stars, to engulf you into the universe that was created in all that ever was and will be in any given city . And I have learned to recognize and appreciate them for what they are, not real stars, but light nonetheless. This past weekend as I sat in the passenger seat of an old school Galant surrounded by people that I can’t imagine living life without exiting Copley Plaza  Macklemore’s ‘White Walls’ began blasting over the radio and I realized that this is what it meant to be 20 in any given city. Great nights spent with people who matter, eating food that is no good for anything but your soul and grabbing life by its well defined cheekbones and saying “You are mine and I will do with you what I’d like” and meaning it with every fiber of your being. 

“I’m blowin’ that roof off, letting in sky
I shine, the city never looked so bright”

Yours in life & love,

TCR