This morning I’m sitting in Emack and Bolios on Centre Street in Jamaica Plain, working on the introduction to my dissertation. I’ve been working on a section where I describe my experience of dislocation after moving from Chicago to Boston, and how my sense of place there was deepened by working with refugees. I’m quite certain that I’ve ended up in JP because it has always reminded me of my old neighborhood in Rogers Park, and now that I’ve moved here after years wandering in an Allston wilderness for too many years, I feel like this is not just a new beginning but also a kind of homecoming, a return to a sense of urban place that I’ve missed for a long time.

It’s good to be back.