Tonight, while navigating the backstreets of downtown Boston/financial/district/”I didn’t really know where I was between Downtown Crossing and Park Street”, I got approached FOUR times for directions from random people. Was it a coincidence? Four times is a lot of times in 10-15 minutes. Do I, in general, look less intimidating and more approachable than the other people in the streets? I’m thinking that this probably isn’t a good thing, considering the fact that I was walking around by myself along sketchy, narrow, dark streets further darkened by humongously tall office buildings. Maybe I need to work on looking tougher.

As to why I was down there in the first place, I was reading applications from Boston-area candidates as a part of the Jefferson Scholars Boston Regional Selection Committee. I happened to meet the chair of the committee back in October at a cocktail party down at the Harbor Hotel. It turned out that the committee was looking for some fresh faces. I guess I looked fresh enough and managed to shimmy my way in.

I found it fascinating being on the other side of this process. This year’s application was almost completely different from the one I filled it out 6 years ago, and it freaked me out that one guidance counselor wrote something about recommending the kid for UVA’s Class of 2010. 2010!!! Once again, I felt old. And all these kids got to turn in their application ONLINE! I remember typing, and retyping, my entire application on our school’s typewriter using scratch paper, before finally getting up the nerve to type on the actual scholarship application, and still ended up cursing myself and struggling with the white-out brush. Repeat 10 times for all the other schools and scholarships for which I was applying. Weren’t those the days?