Brown was where I put a shine on my yearning.
I wanted a unicorn's horn. I deserved it!
I wanted to win that horn without putting in any work required. I expected to be a would-be prince without a sure-whenever kingdom.
But Brown was hard. Brown was Caste University. Within weeks, Brown Institution ground me to flour between ancient millstones: my easy early high school accomplishments > against lifelong unforgiving odds, bigger worlds of triumph.
My outside world until then had been a black-and-white television with three channels; a couple of summer camps; a few friends with no real life experience either; the radio in my family's only car, once I had my license. From our backyard, we'd watched Sputnik fly over in 1957 (just once; it didn't last long). A few times I'd witnessed the Northern Lights from the same spot, thinking if this isn't G_d signaling, it's close.