A New Home

Part I:

Throughout my last year of high school my mother slowly packed items that I would need to take with me when I left Gloucester.  Our basement begun to fill with blankets, sheets, a television, a fridge, and everything else I would need to take with me. Things I would need to take with me to a place that I did not even know the location of yet.

Finally, letters began to come in the mail and by April I had decided on the location of my new home. I was going to be attending school at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. All the packing began to make sense now that we had somewhere to bring it all too. But I still had to leave most of my stuff behind. I had my clothes and other essentials, but my decorations and old pictures were left in my room. I had other decorations for my new room and not enough space for the old ones as well.

As summer came and went my room began to become more and more bare. Most of my clothes and necessary things were being put in boxes and for the last two weeks I had very few wardrobe options. It felt like my stuff had moved before I had.

Saying goodbye to my life in Gloucester was hard, but I knew that it was not a permanent move and I would be able to go back and visit. I was leaving behind my family, friends, job, and my home. Once in Lowell I would no longer be able to smell salt in the air everywhere I went, or hear the annoying seagulls cawing as I drove through the town. I would have to adjust to a new way of life, and I would have to do it by myself.

Though Gloucester is a city, it has more of a small town feel because of the relationship between the citizens. You cannot walk down a street in Gloucester without being stopped and chatting with at least two people you know. I was afraid to live in a bigger city like Lowell; where I would not know anybody and I had been warned not to wonder the streets by myself like I had at home.

Not a day went by that I did not see members of my family or my friends. My cousins and I would often spend Sundays at my Grandma and Papa’s house for “bista zugu”, better known as spaghetti to people who do not know the Gloucester Italian slang. My friends and I would meet up most nights after we all got out of work and have movie nights or go to Lighthouse Beach and just hang out and enjoy the cool summer night. I was terrified to leave it all. What if I couldn’t find friends at school like my friends at home?

Finally Move-In Day arrived. We borrowed my Auntie Beth’s minivan and stuffed it to the brim with everything I could possibly need. My life was going to change drastically. My mother would no longer be in charge of cooking me dinner every night, doing laundry for me, and cleaning up after me. I now had real responsibilities. I was extremely nervous, but when I arrived at the University of Massachusetts Lowell I realized that so was everyone else.

The first weekend I was at school, my roommate and I were sitting in our room with the door open and some kids came in and asked us if we wanted to go out with them, we said yes and went out to the common room to wait for them. We soon learned that they wanted to go to a Frat Party, and when another girl came out and asked us to go to the Silent Disco at University Crossing with her and her friends we jumped at the new opportunity.

These girls have become our best friends at school, and though they are not my friends at home, I love them too, just in a different way. Now everything seems to be falling into place, and Lowell is starting to seem more and more like home. I have friends that I see all the time and when the weather is nice we spend time outside walking through Lowell. Quite a few times we have walked the River Walk or walked to downtown Lowell to visit some shops.  

Living in Lowell is starting to become very similar to living in Gloucester. Though it’s not the ocean, I can still see and hear roaring water every day. I can go for walks, as long as I am with at least one other person, and enjoy certain parts of Lowell. I have learned that not all of Lowell is the bad place that people have warned me about. I am adjusting to my new life in a new city with all new people and I love it.

I know that I will never forget the time I have spent and will spend in Lowell at the University and in the rest of the city. And I know that I will feel similar anxiety about leaving here that I felt about leaving Gloucester to come here. Lowell has become a home to me, no matter where I end up, this city will always be home.  

Part II:         

Without by Marisa Silver tells about the movement of a seven year old girl from her home in Cleveland, Ohio to New York and her experience with the big move. I chose this piece because I felt as though I could relate to this story in my own way with my move from Gloucester, Massachusetts to Lowell, Massachusetts. Though she was just a child at the time, I shared similar feelings about making a move to a completely different environment than the one I had grown accustomed to. Like Silver, when I moved to Lowell I was upset about leaving my life behind, but I also felt excited about the new life I was about to create. Silver structured the essay in a way that started with thoughts of moving, to taking baby steps in the process, and finally to moving. She incorporated stories throughout the essay that take place in both Cleveland and New York and she tell her readers about the emotions that were involved with the move. I tried to follow her structure, but I strayed in some senses because my story does not involve tragedy of losing my belongings forever. Though I felt like I lost many things and I was separated from many of my belongings for long periods of time, I will eventually get my belongings back. I did not lose everything forever without any say in the matter. Marisa Silver lost her childhood, all the physical reminders of it had been lost in the fire. I was only leaving my childhood behind for a couple months at a time.

My story incorporates Lowell and explains my feelings about the city. Originally I was nervous to live in Lowell because I thought it was going to be a dangerous and scary place to live and being completely different from my home in Gloucester. I was listening to others opinion of the city and believe what they had to say. But, as I explain in my essay, when I got to Lowell I got to know the city for myself and began to form my own opinion. I had gone on adventures through Lowell and have learned about the different places of the city, just like I have done back home. I know that weekdays after school hours students from Lowell High School go to the area outside of the Boott-Cotton Mills and breakdance and hangout with their friends. I know that there is a little bakery downtown that has amazing cupcakes. I have learned that bubble tea may be the most delicious thing ever. I have learned a lot about the city by moving to Lowell. In my variation of Without I explained how my views of Lowell changed and how I began to love this city as much as my own. With my essay I did not only want to write something that was similar to Marisa Silver’s piece, I wanted to explain my connection to Lowell and show that your experiences in a place can change your opinion of it.

As Lowell Grows

There are not many cities in the United States that are significant in our countries history, and are still remembered for their achievements. Lowell is one of these few cities. Throughout the years the city of Lowell has been known for many things. As time went on Lowell has developed and changed into the city it is now. Originally, Lowell was known for playing a prominent role in the Industrial Revolution, but it soon became known for its population of Cambodians. Eventually Lowell’s popularity grew because it became the home to the University of Massachusetts Lowell. People come together from all over to learn and become a part of the greatness that Lowell has become.

            Lowell is best known for its role in the Industrial Revolution. The people of Lowell used the Merrimack River to create energy that ran textile mills such as the Boott-Cotton Mills. For over one hundred years thousands of people would work around fourteen hours a day to create fabric for people all over the country, making only about three dollars a week. People flocked from all around to the mills for work, thinking they could send money home to help support their families. The Boott-Cotton Mills have been turned into a museum meant to educate people on what was going on in Lowell during the Industrial Revolution. Kids from all over are brought to the mills to learn about this time period.

I am from Gloucester, MA and every year in elementary school we would drive an hour to these mills to learn about the history of Lowell. We would learn about the working conditions, the reason people came to Lowell, and much more. Recently I visited the Boott-Cotton Mills and I relearned all the things that I learned when I was a child, but I have grown up, and now I truly understand what happened in these mills. The working conditions were terrible, there were many injuries, the employees had to work exhausting hours and made very little money. But the city of Lowell does not cover up the bad that happened in the mills, it fully educates the many people that travel here to learn about the mills. Millions of people across the country knows about the city of Lowell because it was such a major player when the United States started to evolve.

            Lowell, MA is the home to the second highest population of Cambodians outside Cambodia. Second only to Long Beach, CA. The Merrimack Repertory Theatre in Lowell recently put on Year Zero, a play about two Cambodian siblings living in Long Beach. The two siblings had to deal with losing their mother and growing up earlier than they should have to. The older sister had to leave her studies at Berkeley to make all the arrangements for her younger brother, as well as deal with other problems going on in her own life. She had to struggle with the loss of her mother, taking care of her brother, packing all of her mother’s things, as well as dealing with her own personal problems. The little brother also had to deal with the loss of their mother, bullying at school, and wanting to get out of Long Beach. The two children knew little about their mother’s life in Cambodia and as the play went on they are slowly told about their family history and the traumas their mother had to face.
This play taught its viewers a lot about Cambodian culture and the Cambodian Genocide, the reason so many Cambodians moved to places like Lowell and Long Beach. Since there is so many people of Cambodian decent in Lowell this play also taught us about many of the people that live here, their culture, and what they or their ancestors had to go through to get here. The population of Cambodians in Lowell is a big part of what Lowell is and Year Zero taught the many students, such as myself, about the city we had just moved to. It helped show us what was outside the borders of UMass Lowell, off the campuses. Going to see the play got us off campus making us venture into Lowell to get the theatre, so not only did we learn through actually watching the play, but also by our trip to get there.

            The University of Massachusetts Lowell is a Division 1 school, making people travel from all over to play here and to watch the events that are going on. Many students have been recruited from other states to play for the many sports teams we have. I attended a women’s volleyball game and on the roster it showed that many of our players are from states on the west coast. Most of the girls came from Nevada, California, and Arizona, states where volleyball is big. Even though our team lost, the fans in the crowd cheered loudly until the very end, supporting their players. On a Friday night match over two hundred fifty students and non-students came to watch our team play. Similarly at a women’s soccer game there was about two hundred fifty viewers. Once again the crowd was cheering loudly the entire game even though our team lost. Some of the people in the crowd even learned the roster of the opposing team and were trying to distract them as the game went on. Many people come out to see our now Division 1 teams play.

 But hockey is our most popular sport by far, at the game this past Friday night verse Boston College there were about two thousand four hundred students and the rest of the stadium was completely filled. The Tsongas Arena seats about sixty-five hundred people, and many people could not find seats. The line to get into the building wrapped around the Tsongas Arena, and was still their even after the first period ended. People did not even care that they were missing the beginning of the game if it meant that they would be able to see some of it live.  Students, citizens of Lowell, alumni of both schools, and people who just enjoy watching hockey came to Lowell to watch us defeat Boston College 5-2. The crowd was going crazy throughout the entire game, chanting and even taunting the other team. Our school and Division 1 sports teams bring people to Lowell and bring out the good of the city.

            The city of Lowell is known widely because of the textile mills, our Cambodian population, and the University of Massachusetts Lowell. It has adapted greatly since the Industrial Revolution into what it is today. People across the country know of our city for many reasons, and although it has not always had the best reputation I believe that it is changing for the better. Our cities reputation is changing slowly over time.  Our university is helping to change the city and bringing good publicity here, our sports teams are bringing our city into the media for good instead of the bad that sometimes comes out of it. Throughout the years Lowell has grown and become what it is today, and it will continue to grow as time goes on into an even better city. 

A Walk Through History

            If it weren’t for sheer boredom I may have never got to experience Lowell’s Canal Walkway. My friends and I did not know what to do one night, so we decided that we would go for a walk. We roamed around aimlessly and ended up finding the path that runs parallel to the canals that made Lowell a major player in the Industrial Revolution. It was calm and quiet as we walked down the path, the only noise was the sound of the rushing water. It contrasted with what the canals were originally used for. They used to be home to the textile factories that polluted the air with noise. The Lowell Canal System was enlarged and grew rapidly in 1821, at the very beginning of the American Industrial Revolution. This canal system was home to ten major textile mills and helped make Lowell one of the most widely known industrial cities of the time.

It was hard to believe that the water rushing past us was once part of something so big. These canals were the reason thousands of people moved to Lowell in search of a job and a way to help their family. Now they just seem to be something that is there, they have no purpose but to be observed and create beauty in this city.  Even the graffiti seemed to make this walk better. As you walked and looked at the ground you could read the phrase, “the creative adult is the child who survived.” Or the spray paint on the fence that read: ignorance. As we got closer to this particular graffiti it got harder and harder to read, because of the holes in the fence. This graffiti added to the atmosphere of the Canal Walkway, it made everything seem better. Even the heart engraved into the tree, which usually would have annoyed me, seemed like a work of art.

We were just going out for some fresh air and to find something to entertain ourselves, and we just happened upon this beautiful place. It seemed so strange that when a women walked by us walking in the opposite direction she asked if “it was safe up ahead” for her to continue walking. She said that she walked the path every night on her way home from work, but she was always worried. It did not seem like a dangerous place, it made us forget that we were still in Lowell, a city in which you are cautioned about walking around. Lowell does not have a reputation for being a safe city and when we moved into school our RA’s told us to make sure we stuck in groups when we walked around at night. It seemed so strange that we were still in that dangerous place, that we had not been transported somewhere else.

Continuing down the path, we saw panel with informational blurbs about the constructions of the canals, the mills, and the Canal Walkway. They give information on what was happening during the construction and on the improvements in the mills. One panel describes a newspaper article from 1848 and tells about the creation of the stone wall that runs along these great canals. He described it as, “a most splendid piece of workmanship.” The work on the canals intrigued everyone in Lowell at this time. Another panel gave diagrams of the turbines that powered the many mills that lined these canals and showed how improvements were made on them overtime.

We walked all the way along the canal, dodging spiders webs that seemed to be everywhere and getting bit my mosquitoes, which being allergic made the cold night worse for me, but we eventually came upon the Boott-Cotton Mills, a place I had been to many times as a child for field trips in elementary school. It was weird that this place made me miss home, it connected me back. These mills were a part of my childhood even if they were not close to home. In this building, along this canal, hundreds of people worked and produced fabric. There was once a working turbine that powered the entire building with just mechanics, there was no electricity involved. This canal was once someone’s life source, they depended on the water flowing give them work so they could support their families.

The canals in Lowell spread in many directions, and I decided to explore more of them. One Walkway runs parallel to Father Morissette Boulevard, making it less of a path and more like a sidewalk. I was disappointed because I was once again hoping for the feel of being transported somewhere else when adventuring along the Canal Walkways, but this branch did not give that vibe. It did bring me to the Wannalancit Mills. These mills, like the Boott-Cotton Mills are still giving tours, but a lot of it has been transformed into offices for UMass Lowell. Rationally I know that Lowell could not have preserved and changed all of its old mill buildings into museums, but it still saddened me that this piece of history had been mostly destroyed.  

When I revisited the Canal Walkway to take pictures I realized that it was not as magically as it once seemed. Cars were honking as students crossed the road when they were not supposed to, construction work was going on, there was a sense of chaos in this area that I had thought was serene.  I could now picture the loud textile machines that would be running further up the canal. The quote that I had wanted a picture of was washed away by the rain, the path seemed to have changed. But as I kept walking, moving away from the activity of the city, it still seemed to retain its charm. It was becoming a place for me to go and relax and get away from the stress of school.

But this path is part of history, and it is part of Lowell. People travel here to learn about the mills and the people that were apart of them. . A news article from the Lowell Sun revealed that the city got a grant to develop new parts of the Walk and to fix up the older parts. The Canal Walkway is a place people can look and remember what the center of life in Lowell was like almost 200 years ago. And the city of Lowell embraces it. They want people to learn about their city, they are still expanding. No matter where you are from in the United States, it is almost guaranteed that you will learn about Lowell’s role in the Industrial Revolution in a history class. Living here you seem to forget that the city placed such an important role in history.

Walking from East Campus to North Campus everyday does not show you the true heart of Lowell. Its times like our little adventure that connects us to the city. It helps us remember what we are a part of and teaches us more and more about the city. Our walk was just meant to get us out of our dorms, but it showed us what Lowell used to be and taught us some of its history.