Readers’ pick: Square 80 swinging benches
E Street served as the starting line for my jogs to the monuments with my friends during my first year at GW.
Four years later, we’ve grown distant and discontinued the runs, but E Street still serves as a significant landmark to me. Somewhat of a foreign land to non-Elliott students and those lucky enough to not live in Mitchell Hall, E Street is the ribbon that ties Foggy Bottom and our neighbors at the White House and State Department together. It’s where the brutalist architecture of GW stops and the neoclassical style of the National Mall’s landmarks begin.
There’s no time better to ponder the meaning of life than the intermediary between canned, college life where you used to gallivant with your friends and the sea of navy suits and pencil skirts, foreshadowing the full-time work schedule.
Because of its high vantage point, the 11th floor rooftop of 1959 E Street — one of GW’s most spacious and coveted residence halls — serves as the prime location to search for life’s true purpose. If you’re an apartment dweller like me, coax an on-campus friend into giving you their GWorld, so you can access the building.
The rooftop has Adirondack chairs for you to kick back on, close your eyes and debate whether or not you’ve made the most of your life at the ripe age of 22. Personally, I prefer the discomfort of standing to provoke the intrusive thoughts of my unwritten post-graduation plans and whether those plans fulfill me. As you lean against the railing, let the cool metal ground you into reality. The crisp, spring breeze will blow your hair back and relieve some of the weight on your shoulders, priming you for introspective thinking on what you were put on this Earth to do.
The first week of my first year, I met a girl who didn’t know the name of the Washington Monument but referred to it as the pencil. I looked down on her at the time, but now, I think she was a few steps ahead. As you gaze at the monument from the rooftop, you can imagine the pencil writing the rest of your life story.
Atop 1959 E Street, you’re standing on the edge of your past, present and future. Once you descend its height, you’re left to decide which tense to step toward.
