The streets are running rampart with people who are tired, hot, and confused. Trash lines the streets and sorting out what is salvageable and what is not is an exercise in futility. All that can be heard is car horns and the sounds of people yelling. Cops are everywhere, but they seem helpless to actually control the chaos that is going on around them. People are running in and out of homes grabbing all they can in their arms.
It is September 1st, Labor Day, and a plethora of college students are trying to move.
Labor Day, the holiday created solely for rest, has become the day leases end and start, and people must vacate their premises as others move in. Students in Mission Hill, Allston, Brighton and many others of the Boston neighborhoods that are overflowing with collegiate liveliness must play musical chairs with their living quarters on the very same day, and no one really feels like a winner.
“The whole city is trying to do the same thing at once,” says Bobby Klucevsek, a Northeastern student from Mission Hill. “It only works because people are forced to, but nobody is happy about it.”
It is well known that Labor Day is the day people are relocating, and indeed it is generally looked upon as a horrible day.
“It sucked,” says Douglas Calabrese, a New England Institute of Art student who moved two miles from Allston to Brighton. “Everybody was moving. The whole city.”
Not only is it difficult to deal with everyone around you moving, but students had to deal with their realty companies along with their own problems. These include dealing with excess trash, damages to the apartment, and scheduling times with the current and new tenants.
“Everyone has trash, and they’re threatening us with fines,” says Klucevsek.
Not all these issues with realty companies are easily solved, if they can be solved at all.
“Unfortunately there’s not much they can really do about it,” says Bryan Mastergeorge, a Mass Art student from Mission Hill. “The realtors could maybe schedule moving times better and not just have everyone show up whenever.”
Some people avoid these problems entirely by avoiding moving all together. Those with the luxury of staying in their apartments for another year actually got to enjoy their Labor Day.
“I got to wake up at a reasonable hour and look out my window at all the poor saps unloading over packed minivans,” says Mastergeorge. “Not to mention all the looks of disgust on all the parent’s faces.”
Not having to deal with moving isn’t the only reason people stay with their apartments for a longer period of time.
“I live pretty close to school and our apartment is in pretty good condition, so it just didn’t make much sense to find another place. That and I’m lazy,” says Mastergeorge.
Not every one has that ease of staying where they were.
“I lived with seven people and it just got too hectic,” says Klucevsek.
Moving does have some upsides, albeit not many. One of which is cutting down on belongings that one doesn’t need any more.
“There were a lot of things that I thought I needed that I realized I had no more use for,” says Klucevsek.
The problems with moving most likely won’t be solved any time soon, and it seems like something one needs to accept.
“I’ve learned that moving is something that will never just go right,” says Mastergeorge. “You either bring too much or not enough. Your place is trashed when you get there. Your TV stand won’t fit where the only cable jack is. It’s always something.”
All in all, it is an accepted fact that moving in the city is far from the ideal usage of Labor Day.
“Clusterfuck,” says Mastergeorge. “If that’s not appropriate for the newspaper, it’s just frustrating. The week without internet and cable after the move in is even more frustrating.”
In fact, Bobby Klucevsek sums up what most students feelings are on the topic quite nicely.
“It was quite possibly the worst day of my life.”
Moving in may not be as bad as a riot, a giant monster attacking the city, or Armageddon, but it is up there on the list.