It’s kind of strange to me how all our major milestones and memories in life are bittersweet. It’s happy because we’re looking forward to what awaits us in the future, but sad because we don't want to leave our memories behind.
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Graduating high school is the definition of bittersweet. You are so excited to leave your hometown, meet new people, and experience new things. That last summer before you leave, you and your friends talk about how much fun the next four years will be, not knowing that everything will change after this summer. You’re excited and nervous right up until your friends start to leave. It’s a totally different feeling hugging your childhood best friend goodbye until Thanksgiving. That’s really when everything starts to kick in… you will be leaving your comfort zone. Some high school friends you lose touch with and others remain your best friends, but it’s hard to accept that it won’t be exactly the same again. You’ll miss the person that you were and the carelessness of high school, but you'll crave the independence that college brings. That’s why it’s so bittersweet; you’re heading for something great, but you’re also leaving a great period in your life behind. So, when I hear high schoolers say, “I can’t wait to get out of this town”, I flashback to myself saying the same thing, and how I couldn’t wait to be done with school. Looking back, I didn’t realize how much I’d actually miss it all and how it wouldn’t be so sweet when it actually came to packing up my childhood room and saying goodbye to everyone.
But as I’m walking out of my freshman year dorm for the last time, I can’t help but have this same feeling. I’m so excited to be reunited with some of my best friends and go home for the summer, but I’m going to miss everything about college. I genuinely felt a little bit sadder leaving college for four months than I did leaving my hometown for nine. The people you meet in college become closer than any friends you’ve ever had. You live with these people, and they’ve seen you at your lowest and highest. You’re excited for summer but sad that you have to leave your new found freedom behind. It’s bittersweet because I feel like right when I finally got settled in to the big change and really started having fun, it was all over and I had to go back home. I find myself on Thursday or Saturday nights thinking, “We would be getting ready to go out right now” or “I’d be walking to my 9:30am class right now.” My summer won’t be the same without my roommate, who became my best friend and lives over an hour away from me. The memories we created were unforgettable and it’s sad to leave them behind. I can’t even imagine when we graduate.
I'm sure this Summer will fly by just like the past nine months have, and by then, I’m sure it’ll be bittersweet to leave our friends and hometown once again for the change of sophomore year. But I don’t think it’ll be as hard because we’ll be returning to some place that holds so many memories and great friends; we'll always be looking forward to the future but never forgetting the memories from the past.
