It's about time to ride the downhill slope of the school year into your chosen summer refuge. You emerged from your last final startled by the sun, as though you had just fled a movie theater or a brief chapter in serfdom. This is the place where it's finally safe to exhale and survey your surroundings; but you may realize that everybody else wrapped up too, faster than you could keep track of.
In high school, the year always ended off with a collective bang. In one colossal swell, the school bell rang and every exit in the building poured out an ant colony of chaos. More importantly, everyone stuck around to stew in your town for a few months afterwards. In college, the end of the year fizzles away while everyone starts dropping like flies.
All that's left to do is lay out in the recuperative sun and wait for the grading process to do its thing, but goodbyes can be tough with everyone heading for the hills immediately after their last exam. It may dawn on you that you won't be seeing all the usual suspects next year, and the closer you are to upperclassmen the tougher that pill may be to swallow.
Transitions are rarely easy, and seeing the impending albums of friends in gowns and graduation caps may be confusing. Everyone is going to look alarmingly groomed, adjusted in ways you may not see yourself following. Finally escaping to the other side, the grad lads leave us carrying the Tartan torch another year.
All of this can seem hasty, so I know many of your are asking yourselves, "Where do the seniors go?"
It's mysterious, I know. It's baffling, and it can be a little unnerving when you realize that one day your time will come too. I'm here to tell you, rest assured, they're in a better place.
On the other side exists a beautiful Shangri-la, completely void of exam cramming and incomparable TAs. Unlimited alcohol rivers run legally down every hillside, and the skies rain down homeworkless rapture every evening, 5pm sharp. Some fear the world outside these tall campus corridors, but understand that the promised land is out there.
You may be harboring suspicions about some "The Island" style conspiracy awaiting the chosen few outside. That's all just old wives tales; pay no mind to the whispers.
Your senior friends may be gone, but you'll do just fine befriending the kids in your own grade! Be happy for your cool older pals. They're doing much better now, chasing frisbees down bright city pastures.
