a griggs intermission.

this morning i got on a plane bound for the cooling northeast september. with the northeast, storms approach the horizon of my mind ... cold showers spent hovering at T stops and snow storms passed while we took the latest bus we could to harvard square. i stepped out of the airport, and in this mindset, i was reminded of all the time i whiled away, sheltered from my own storm.

this support system that we at griggs street had created for ourselves extended beyond your average friendships. i chose my family when i chose them. these were the people who wouldn't judge me, and they never have.

i made some bad decisions in my years at griggs ... we all did ... because above everything, we're human. i got into bad times, bad rhythms, bad trips. somehow, through it all, after months of my head down and keeping the wind at my back, i'd finally look up and who do you think was waiting there? a group of people, standing there, stylistically, knowingly, disturbingly, supportively, smiling right at me because they were just waiting for my chin to lift to the sky.

and so coming here, to these shadowy new england corners, i'm opening some closets that i've long since closed, barricaded against the anxiety and paranoia that someone might find out that i screwed up, that i was once vulnerable. but i'm beginning to learn that it's not the events themselves that are shaping me, but my ability to pass them and admit that i was wrong.

somehow, i know that my admissions will come as no surprise to the members of griggs ... as they know that to err is human ... to the ones who still watch me closely with my head down, back to the wind. they know that i, too, will once again lift my chin and smile at the sky.