This past weekend, I took a little mini-vacation to go visit Rochester, the place I had called home for five years when I was attending school there. It was odd being there a little over a year after graduation. Everyone I had known there is pretty much gone save a few people. When I was there during the summer, it was always quiet but having other people around always made it fun. After being in Rochester in early August on a weekend near the end of the summer quarter at RIT, it just felt like one big ghost town.

Very little has changed since I had left. Maybe a few retail stores or restaurants have come and gone. RIT now has Park Point (which should have been finished by now) with all the apartments and shops. The Barnes & Noble massively stands out in what used to just swampy grass and trees. Everything was still familiar, but I just felt so disconnected from it all. There was nothing that tied me down to Rochester anymore. I had missed Wegmans (really, nothing else compares to it) and going to Dibella’s (subs haven’t been the same since), but I missed the people more than anything.

I had also taken a side trip to Cleveland and Buffalo visiting some friends there. It’s nice to see that they are all doing well. I didn’t spend much time in either city, but enough to see everyone and hang out for a little bit. Everyone is a lot more grown up now than they were in college especially now that we are all graduates with full-time jobs. It was nice to touch base with everyone to see what they were up to these days.

When I made my stop back in Rochester before I trekked home, I was starting to get that nostalgic feeling again. It’s the feeling that you get from all those fun times you had in college with all your friends and such, and it made me realize how much I miss everyone. Rochester feels like an empty shell now, and since there is nothing left for me there, it’s time to officially move on.