Where is my Third Space?

I’ve been thinking a lot about third spaces this year.

You know, it’s the place about trying to find spaces where you can come together with friends and just bond over anything that isn’t home or work (also school just as much). Over the course of the last three years, and now just reflecting more broadly about how other schools work, I realized how challenging it can be in a city with winter to really sustain the maintenance of third spaces in a healthy manner. You can try to enforce more clear boundaries in how you choose to move about in college, but ultimately, the third spaces always feel limiting.

It feels like an obvious point of discussion, but so much of what constitutes a third space revolves around alcohol or substance use. It feels like recurring things I see on the timeline, as well as just in frequent conversations with friends. It’s not that I necessarily mind coming together over a bev, especially when I know that we can find the time to unwind in some capacity. It’s been where I’ve gotten some of the best memories and conversations in school. But, I also know that there need to be some other opportunities to kick it outside the context of grabbing a cider. Maybe what I’m just expecting or hoping for is that I implicitly am trying to create a third space where I can have these various social/political/cultural facets of life appreciated. I get that out of so…