maisie quinn
Brown students care deeply about their work and the world around them. Students find contentment, satisfaction, and meaning in daily interactions and major discoveries. Whether big or small, mundane or spectacular, tell us about something that brings you joy. (200-250 words)
When the evening begins to settle on summer nights, I’ll sometimes step out of my window and onto the roof. I look first into my block’s backyards, maybe at my neighbors having a drink with their friends, maybe at the shapes the trees make against the sky. Sound carries well, and I can hear people laughing on the street.
Then I look further, out and over Manayunk. My house is situated at the top of a hill, and my neighborhood clings to its side. When I walk the streets, there’s a sense that I’m not supposed to be there—nature still owns this place. Streets break in half, severed by cliffs, and I walk down graffitied staircases that feel makeshift and shoddy among the sheer power of these cliffs and the trees that cling to them. But when I’m on the roof, it all knits itself together into one strange yet beautiful picture, as if this synthesis of the urban and the natural was always meant to exist.
There’s something about the air and the dusky light that rarely fails to inspire me—many a poem has been born from these rooftop evenings. They don’t have to produce anything, though. Every once in a while, instead of observing all that’s around me, I lean back, stare at the sky and enjoy the warmth and beauty of it all. And that’s enough.