Yesterday, I visited the newly-renovated American History museum, mostly to see the famous Star-Spangled Banner. The exhibit is beautiful. A sculpture hangs where the flag once did, and behind it is a dark hallway the middle of which holds the flag, now laid flat. What follows the flag is a series of TVs playing scenes centered around the American flag while various versions of the national anthem played in the background. The whole thing was moving, and I stayed around long enough for the tape to loop through so I could hear Jimi Hendrix's version of the Star-Spangled Banner twice. Walking around the mall, by the Capitol and through the city that I often consider moving back to after graduation, it became very obvious how different my DC life would be should I decide to return.
The first I got to know of DC was in college, and the year I spent in the city afterwards was with Nicole. My life partner, (if she hadn't found Jim) we drank cocktails on Tuesdays on our balcony, cooked, walked, shopped, lunched, and partied together. I have college friends who still live here, but it's clear that if I come back, my life will be entirely different. And that's good. I can't live the 22-year-old carefree life forever, and my attraction to DC the second time around will have to be one of professional nature. But it's a city I do love, and walking down First street between the newly-renovated Capitol complex and the Supreme Court and Library of Congress I felt that pull to come back. Those buildings are where things happen and no matter how hard I seem to try to distance myself from them, I always find myself wanting to go back.
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