--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: And how easy it was to leave this life…" description: "\"“And how easy it was to leave this life, after all - this life that could feel so present and permanent that departing from it must seem to require a t..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3a2/sylvia-brownrigg-25327_dorm_and-how-easy-it-was-to-leave-this-life-a_732779.png" --- # And how easy it was to leave this life, after all - this… ![“And how easy it was to leave this life, after all - this life that could feel so present and permanent that departing from it must seem to require a tear into a different dimension. There the bunch of them were, young hopefuls, decorating their annually purged dorm rooms with postcards and prints…” quote by Sylvia Brownrigg](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3a2/sylvia-brownrigg-25327_dorm_and-how-easy-it-was-to-leave-this-life-a_732779.png) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3a2/sylvia-brownrigg-25327_dorm_and-how-easy-it-was-to-leave-this-life-a_732779.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3a2/sylvia-brownrigg-25327_dorm_and-how-easy-it-was-to-leave-this-life-a_732779.png) > ““And how easy it was to leave this life, after all - this life that could feel so present and permanent that departing from it must seem to require a tear into a different dimension. There the bunch of them were, young hopefuls, decorating their annually purged dorm rooms with postcards and prints and favorite photographs of friends, filling them with hot pots and dried flowers, throw rugs and stereos. Houseplants, a lamp, maybe some furniture brought up by encouraging parents. They nested there like miniature grownups. As if this provisional student life - with its brushfire friendships and drink-addled intimacies, its gorging on knowledge and blind sexual indulgences - could possibly last. As if it were a home, of any kind at all: someplace to gather one's sense of self. Flannery had never felt for a minute that these months of shared living took place on anything other than quicksand, and it had given this whole year (these scant seven or eight months, into which an aging decade or so had been condensed) a sliding, wavery feel. She came from earthquake country and knew the dangers of building on landfill. That was, it seemed to Flannery, the best description of this willed group project of freshman year: construction on landfill. A collective confusion of impressions and tendencies, mostly castoffs with a few keepers. What was there to count on in any of it? What structure would remain, founded on that?”” [Sylvia Brownrigg](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sylvia-brownrigg/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Student life feels temporary and unstable, like building on sand, yet it offers a fleeting sense of home and identity. **In simple terms:** College is a fragile, temporary home. Key Takeaway Embrace the fleeting community. Themes transience identity community Mood nostalgic melancholy reflective Type narrative philosophical When to use this quote - freshman orientation - dorm life - temporary friendships Key Concepts impermanence growth belonging Questions to Reflect On - How do you find lasting meaning in temporary settings? - What anchors you when surroundings feel unstable? A Different Perspective The instability can cause anxiety about lasting connections. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Dorm rooms](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/dorm-rooms/) [Freshman year](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/freshman-year/) [Friendship](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/friendship/) [Hope](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/hope/) [Life](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/life/) [Sense of self](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/sense-of-self/) [Student life](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/student-life/) ## Related quotes > [You’re never going to find a guy who’s exactly like you—first of all, because that guy never leaves his dorm room.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainbow-rowell/you-re-never-going-to-find-a-guy-who-s-exactly-like-you-first-of-all/) [Rainbow Rowell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainbow-rowell/) > [“...you must wear clothes, you must honor your teachers, you must not attack fellow students' dorm rooms with chain saws.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/e-lockhart/you-must-wear-clothes-you-must-honor-your-teachers-you-must-not/) [E. Lockhart](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/e-lockhart/) > [In my dorm room, I was a hermit making music, I've always had a sense of urgency that I don't have forever to make…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/g-eazy/in-my-dorm-room-i-was-a-hermit-making-music-i-ve-always-had-a-sense/) [G-Eazy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/g-eazy/) > [It's like I'm in a closet in a college dorm room.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/cody-lundin/it-s-like-i-m-in-a-closet-in-a-college-dorm-room/) [Cody Lundin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/cody-lundin/) > [It's incredible to be young and live here and not have to clean up your dorm room.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/penn-dayton-badgley/it-s-incredible-to-be-young-and-live-here-and-not-have-to-clean-up/) [Penn Dayton Badgley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/penn-dayton-badgley/) > [I picked ducks in a tub in my dorm room. I'd hang deer in the doorway between the bedroom and the little living room…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/phil-robertson/i-picked-ducks-in-a-tub-in-my-dorm-room-i-d-hang-deer-in-the-doorway/) [Phil Robertson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/phil-robertson/) > [I wish I wasn't famous. I wish I was still in school So that I could have you in my dorm room, how I'd…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/drake/i-wish-i-wasn-t-famous-i-wish-i-was-still-in-school-so-that-i-could/) [Drake](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/drake/) > [Yeah, I spent about 20 years in a dorm room. It took me a while to graduate.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/douglas-wilson/yeah-i-spent-about-20-years-in-a-dorm-room-it-took-me-a-while-to/) [Douglas Wilson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/douglas-wilson/) > [I started out really making music in my dorm room, and it wasn't really producing or anything like that; it was you making something.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/danger-mouse/i-started-out-really-making-music-in-my-dorm-room-and-it-wasn-t/) [Danger Mouse](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/danger-mouse/) > [Zuckerberg wants to take us back to the dorm room where we all know each other. I don't want to, I want to go…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/andrew-keen/zuckerberg-wants-to-take-us-back-to-the-dorm-room-where-we-all-know/) [Andrew Keen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/andrew-keen/) > [The mistake isn't releasing something bad. The mistake is to launch it and get PR people involved. You don't want people to start amping…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/eric-ries/the-mistake-isn-t-releasing-something-bad-the-mistake-is-to-launch-it/) [Eric Ries](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/eric-ries/) > [On TV, talking heads wrung their hands over a lack of traditional feminine values and wondered if girls’ sports were to blame. Then they…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/libba-bray/on-tv-talking-heads-wrung-their-hands-over-a-lack-of-traditional/) [Libba Bray](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/libba-bray/) > [Everyone knows French artist Claude Monet's "Water Lilies," which he painted in his garden. You find the images everywhere from galleries to dorm rooms…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ari-shapiro/everyone-knows-french-artist-claude-monet-s-water-lilies-which-he/) [Ari Shapiro](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ari-shapiro/) > [When I was in college, we used to take a popcorn popper, because that was the only thing they would let us use in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mike-huckabee/when-i-was-in-college-we-used-to-take-a-popcorn-popper-because-that/) [Mike Huckabee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mike-huckabee/) > [It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/steve-jobs/it-wasn-t-all-romantic-i-didn-t-have-a-dorm-room-so-i-slept-on-the/) [Steve Jobs](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/steve-jobs/) ## More by Sylvia Brownrigg > [“He did not know what it was like to be two women in love.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sylvia-brownrigg/he-did-not-know-what-it-was-like-to-be-two-women-in-love/) [Sylvia Brownrigg](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sylvia-brownrigg/) > [The gap between the inner and outer self is one I've found interesting, even essential, about the way we move through the world. In…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sylvia-brownrigg/the-gap-between-the-inner-and-outer-self-is-one-i-ve-found/) [Sylvia Brownrigg](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sylvia-brownrigg/) > [Those who are apparently absent can feel more present than the people right in front of you.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sylvia-brownrigg/those-who-are-apparently-absent-can-feel-more-present-than-the-people/) [Sylvia Brownrigg](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sylvia-brownrigg/) > [“We will never be together. Sweetheart. I am too brittle, hidden, and snappish, and you are too married. You are altogether too married.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sylvia-brownrigg/we-will-never-be-together-sweetheart-i-am-too-brittle-hidden-and/) [Sylvia Brownrigg](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sylvia-brownrigg/) > [“He wants me back." The closing punctuation of "obviously" hung in the air. The confidence in her! Anne would always have it: the certainty…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sylvia-brownrigg/he-wants-me-back-the-closing-punctuation-of-obviously-hung-in-the-air/) [Sylvia Brownrigg](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sylvia-brownrigg/) > [“Such nights are possible, and we survive them. It is a matter of sleeping next to the adored body you no longer have the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sylvia-brownrigg/such-nights-are-possible-and-we-survive-them-it-is-a-matter-of/) [Sylvia Brownrigg](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sylvia-brownrigg/) > [It could not always be love in the afternoon and passion in the night, gifts given, notes written, meals fed to each other. It…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sylvia-brownrigg/it-could-not-always-be-love-in-the-afternoon-and-passion-in-the-night/) [Sylvia Brownrigg](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sylvia-brownrigg/) > [“She'd have to start smoking. There would be no other way through this.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sylvia-brownrigg/she-d-have-to-start-smoking-there-would-be-no-other-way-through-this/) [Sylvia Brownrigg](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sylvia-brownrigg/) > [“I've been called promiscuous. Not a pretty word, is it? Makes you think of the gloop that comes out of your nose or what…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sylvia-brownrigg/i-ve-been-called-promiscuous-not-a-pretty-word-is-it-makes-you-think/) [Sylvia Brownrigg](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sylvia-brownrigg/) > [“The heart did ache, actually. She felt a dull grind of lack somewhere near her diaphragm, a pain that occupied the space of something…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sylvia-brownrigg/the-heart-did-ache-actually-she-felt-a-dull-grind-of-lack-somewhere/) [Sylvia Brownrigg](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sylvia-brownrigg/) > [“Flannery had loved Anne truly. And truthfully. She had seen Anne clearly, not covered with the reflective glitter a person acquires if you view…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sylvia-brownrigg/flannery-had-loved-anne-truly-and-truthfully-she-had-seen-anne/) [Sylvia Brownrigg](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sylvia-brownrigg/) > [No wonder you want to be a writer. How can you not, with all that behind you? You practically are a novel already.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sylvia-brownrigg/no-wonder-you-want-to-be-a-writer-how-can-you-not-with-all-that/) [Sylvia Brownrigg](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sylvia-brownrigg/) > [This was another item about growing up: you encountered all the cliches of love and loss and heartbreak.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sylvia-brownrigg/this-was-another-item-about-growing-up-you-encountered-all-the/) [Sylvia Brownrigg](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sylvia-brownrigg/) > [“People are cruel, and they will do anything.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sylvia-brownrigg/people-are-cruel-and-they-will-do-anything/) [Sylvia Brownrigg](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sylvia-brownrigg/) > [“Flannery never forgot this. Anne Arden, a woman who meant more to Flannery than Flannery felt she could ever have meant to Anne, had…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sylvia-brownrigg/flannery-never-forgot-this-anne-arden-a-woman-who-meant-more-to/) [Sylvia Brownrigg](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sylvia-brownrigg/) [Explore all 23 Sylvia Brownrigg quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sylvia-brownrigg/) ## More Dorm quotes > [Proust's tea cake has nothing on one hour in a college dorm.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gloria-steinem/proust-s-tea-cake-has-nothing-on-one-hour-in-a-college-dorm/) [Gloria Steinem](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gloria-steinem/) > [“She came down to my dorm that night, knocking on the door around nine o'clock. Martha was at the library, and I was eating…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/curtis-sittenfeld/she-came-down-to-my-dorm-that-night-knocking-on-the-door-around-nine/) [Curtis Sittenfeld](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/curtis-sittenfeld/) > [“There can be no fooling ourselves into thinking this is something other than what it is—the willful ejection of Molly from our nest. It’s…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-wiggs/there-can-be-no-fooling-ourselves-into-thinking-this-is-something/) [Susan Wiggs](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-wiggs/) > [I wanted to go to NYU because I thought that was my best path to glory. I figured it was safer to move into…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/danielle-schneider/i-wanted-to-go-to-nyu-because-i-thought-that-was-my-best-path-to/) [Danielle Schneider](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/danielle-schneider/) > [You don't need equipment of any kind to get a good workout in. In fact, you can get a good workout in the smallest…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/harley-pasternak/you-don-t-need-equipment-of-any-kind-to-get-a-good-workout-in-in-fact/) [Harley Pasternak](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/harley-pasternak/) > [When you come from living in a dorm room with no clothes, no girls, no cars, and then you go to having three cars,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lil-yachty/when-you-come-from-living-in-a-dorm-room-with-no-clothes-no-girls-no/) [Lil Yachty](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lil-yachty/) > [Believe it or not, the first spark for everything I've done today came down to me meeting one person in college who changed my…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elliott-bisnow/believe-it-or-not-the-first-spark-for-everything-i-ve-done-today-came/) [Elliott Bisnow](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elliott-bisnow/) > [I played in a couple of really crummy bands, including one in the dorm I was in at MIT, for a year or two.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tom-scholz/i-played-in-a-couple-of-really-crummy-bands-including-one-in-the-dorm/) [Tom Scholz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tom-scholz/) > [I was very shy and somewhat awkward. I studied too hard. And to have this exciting dorm life was a whole new thing.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nicholson-baker/i-was-very-shy-and-somewhat-awkward-i-studied-too-hard-and-to-have/) [Nicholson Baker](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nicholson-baker/) > [The Dorm Room Diet is nothing like the conventional diets you may have tried in the past. It offers guidelines for creating a healthy…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/daphne-oz/the-dorm-room-diet-is-nothing-like-the-conventional-diets-you-may/) [Daphne Oz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/daphne-oz/) > [“I was testing dorm security. It sucks. -Rose to Dimitri”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richelle-mead/i-was-testing-dorm-security-it-sucks-rose-to-dimitri/) [Richelle Mead](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richelle-mead/) > [After practice, I would have to go back to the dorm and take a nap.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kareem-abdul-jabbar/after-practice-i-would-have-to-go-back-to-the-dorm-and-take-a-nap/) [Kareem Abdul-Jabbar](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kareem-abdul-jabbar/) > [Zuckerberg wants to take us back to the dorm room where we all know each other. I don't want to, I want to go…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/andrew-keen/zuckerberg-wants-to-take-us-back-to-the-dorm-room-where-we-all-know/) [Andrew Keen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/andrew-keen/) > [I ended up rooming in a dorm that was basically a solid wall of female scientists. And every Wednesday, we would all watch "Star…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/naomi-novik/i-ended-up-rooming-in-a-dorm-that-was-basically-a-solid-wall-of/) [Naomi Novik](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/naomi-novik/) > [“I was testing dorm security," I said. "It sucks." - Rose”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richelle-mead/i-was-testing-dorm-security-i-said-it-sucks-rose/) [Richelle Mead](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richelle-mead/) Browse all 73 Dorm quotes ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“And how easy it was to leave this life, after all - this life that could feel so present and permanent that departing from it must seem to require a tear into a different dimension. There the bunch of them were, young hopefuls, decorating their annually purged dorm rooms with postcards and prints and favorite photographs of friends, filling them with hot pots and dried flowers, throw rugs and stereos. Houseplants, a lamp, maybe some furniture brought up by encouraging parents. They nested there like miniature grownups. As if this provisional student life - with its brushfire friendships and drink-addled intimacies, its gorging on knowledge and blind sexual indulgences - could possibly last. As if it were a home, of any kind at all: someplace to gather one's sense of self. Flannery had never felt for a minute that these months of shared living took place on anything other than quicksand, and it had given this whole year (these scant seven or eight months, into which an aging decade or so had been condensed) a sliding, wavery feel. She came from earthquake country and knew the dangers of building on landfill. That was, it seemed to Flannery, the best description of this willed group project of freshman year: construction on landfill. A collective confusion of impressions and tendencies, mostly castoffs with a few keepers. What was there to count on in any of it? What structure would remain, founded on that?”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sylvia Brownrigg" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sylvia-brownrigg/and-how-easy-it-was-to-leave-this-life-after-all-this-life-that-could/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Dorm" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sylvia-brownrigg/and-how-easy-it-was-to-leave-this-life-after-all-this-life-that-could/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3a2/sylvia-brownrigg-25327_dorm_and-how-easy-it-was-to-leave-this-life-a_732779.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3a2/sylvia-brownrigg-25327_dorm_and-how-easy-it-was-to-leave-this-life-a_732779.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3a2/sylvia-brownrigg-25327_dorm_and-how-easy-it-was-to-leave-this-life-a_732779.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“And how easy it was to leave this life, after all - this life that could feel so present and permanent that…” — Sylvia Brownrigg", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Sylvia Brownrigg", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sylvia-brownrigg/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "“And how easy it was to...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sylvia-brownrigg/and-how-easy-it-was-to-leave-this-life-after-all-this-life-that-could/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sylvia-brownrigg/and-how-easy-it-was-to-leave-this-life-after-all-this-life-that-could/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```