By Eamon Scarbrough
The human life, with the proper care, can last quite a long time. More than 100 years in some cases.
Although 21 years is less than a quarter of that total, it can still seem like an eternity. While it is said that life just goes faster and faster, the tedium of life really can drag one down. Said tedium is compounded by living in a place where there’s not much of anything going on, ever.
School can keep a person occupied, but only for so long. It’s almost tempting enough to take summer classes just to relieve some boredom.
I have felt this way as long as I have lived in Portales, and that amounts to about 19 years altogether.
I’ve spent 19 years in this town chasing echoes through Eastern New Mexico University’s empty campus during the summer and getting into general mischief.
One might think that Portales is a dismal place when all of the students and faculty leave for the summer, diminishing a large part of the population. However, the absence of people transforms ENMU into a new world filled with mystery and wonder, and a wide array of interesting locales to explore patron-free.
I have been fighting a constant war with boredom since I was a small child, and of all the times to do it, the summer has always been my favorite.
However, in two weeks, I’ll be coming into my final summer, facing my final chance to make this city my playground.
To celebrate the closing of this sometimes monotonous but ultimately rich and rewarding chapter of my life, I plan to revisit some of my favorite memories of Portales. From the staggering heights of the Theatre building’s loft to the sparkling sands of Grulla (Google it and go there posthaste), my summer schedule is going to be full of adventure.
Such a summer is as it should be because I will no longer have these marvels at my doorstep. In whatever bleak cityscape I end up, I bet I won’t be able to look up at the stars and see my dreams reflected back at me.
That great Portales silence that I have come to love won’t follow me to my next destination and will probably beckon my return eventually—but only temporarily.
I may be glad to be leaving, but I can’t deny that this is my home, and it has given me so much.