I tried really hard to think of somewhere that was I'd consider my favourite spot. Apart from my bedroom (cause it's where all my stuff is), nothing really came to mind. And I decided that I was taking the wrong approach. I was looking for somewhere meaningful and significant and metaphorically resonant, when what I really needed to look for was where I spend a significant amount of my quality time. Which led me to this place:
Which subsequently led me to the conclusion that since starting uni my social life has consisted of hanging out with a rotating group of five to seven oddballs in either a study room or a coffee shop. In short, it has all the window-dressing of a (very boring) sitcom.
I find it fascinating how groups end up congregating around 'spots' - all through high school, for example, we hung out under the same fixed umbrella in the same courtyard. It seems that this might be a case of Truth in Television. And the geography of those places comes to shape the way your group interacts, what pastimes you bring there, what you talk about and how you talk about it.
Inevitably, you end up defining your group by where they hang out, like the friends in Friends and their coffee shop, or the community in Community in their study room. And it makes me worry about what's going to happen to my group of friends once we don't have some central, constant place - if not to call our own, then at least to temporarily stake claim to over a lunch hour. Where will we meet? Will we find another table, another sofa? Or will we drift apart if we don't have anything physical to force us together?
And what happens to the places? Will they grow new groups to replace us? Is there another group of mates hanging out in our courtyard now, under our umbrella? Will they be anything like us? Will they make the same jokes, about the ragged looking bushes and the stack of apple stickers on the umbrella pole as we did, and will they wonder if anyone was there to make jokes before them? Do they define themselves by that dozen-odd square metres of space like we did?
Because that's the thing about these spots. They seem private and fixed and intimately yours when you're in them, but when you're gone, they just go back to being furniture. I guess ultimately, if I had to come up with a moral for this TfP, it'd be something like this: Places by themselves are meaningless. It's the people in them that make them interesting.
I really enjoyed reading this, rocky! It made me think about my lunch table in high school and how my friends and I would get cheesed off if other students sat at it during recess. But in the end, we'd all just grab another table and fall back into whatever it is we always did. The difference in geography was unsettling but like you said, the people are the ones that make the place interesting. It was after all just a table with really ugly tablecloth.
ReplyDeleteI dunno. I find places meaningful even without people. Like some beautiful old building with gorgeous architecture. I could sit there alone and find it every bit as meaningful even if I never was with another person there. Hell it could even be my favorite place. I could perhaps attribute it to people who once were there though. Like the artist that carved that beautiful statue I'm looking at, or the architect that designed the place some 300 years ago etc. But yeah, some places really can be interesting because of the people in them :)
ReplyDeleteAlso, those metallic chairs in that photo. Our university has them too! We also have a version without that back plate. There's just that armrest/back arch thing. And those are the most uncomfortable chairs I've ever sat on. Leaning your back against that arc just...hurts! It makes my mind scream out "WHY?" every time! And that is one of the reasons why I no longer eat lunch at that one cafeteria...
I also know those chairs, they are terrible!
DeleteWhat are these? The universal torturing chairs for all universities????
DeleteMy god, yes. They're bloody awful. That's why we usually sit on the couches inside, but they aren't always free for pretty much that exact reason.
DeleteThe ones with that back plate, like in the picture, aren't bad...but the ones without...seriously! TORTURE! I'm glad at our uni they're limited to only one of the cafeterias...
DeleteSee, ours aren't as bad, but they are in every single outlet. Let that sink in for a moment.
DeleteThere is not a single properly comfortable seat in any cafe on campus. Torture indeed.
We also have them in some cafés and in some waiting rooms at doctors...
DeleteWhat is it with University's torturing their students. We have those chairs outside every cafe and eatery on campus.One of the many reasons I don't eat outside. That and the fact I go from normal colour to lobster after being exposed to the sun for more than 5 minutes.
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