Tonight, as I sat across from my very best friend, it finally hit me -- I have less than two weeks to be in the place I love most before leaving for three months. I have a week and a half left to go downtown, or order pizza at 2 a.m., run on the dikes, or go play on Bowman. The end of the year is always the most bittersweet time for me. I can vividly remember de-lofting my bed after freshman year and sleeping on the floor while studying for finals. I remember how sad that was, but how excited I was to be finished with my first year of college.
Now, I sit in my dorm and talk to my roommate at night and laugh and joke, while the reality that it will never be like this again hovers over our conversation. I will never again live in a dorm. I will never again be in such close proximity to so many girls, nonetheless, my sorority sisters. I will never get to share a room again with one of my very best friends. But then again, I will never have to share a community bathroom, again, which I am quite thankful for.
It's a strange feeling that the years of dorm living with my best friends are coming to a close and this chapter of my life is almost over. In twenty years, I will be telling my children about the nights Sarah and I would stay up laughing, or how we watched Keeping Up With the Kardashians just about every day. Monterey's is being torn down and moving; after two years of getting tacos for $1 every Wednesday, the tradition is ending.
A lot is changing, ending, and beginning as this second semester comes to a close. We are about to be juniors, living in our own apartments, getting jobs, internships, and seriously considering our future. And that is as terrifying as it is exciting.
The excitement for summer comes with the reality that there is no school work. I will be in the woods working at camp while my friends are relaxing at the beach, working, or doing other things. We will all live our own separate lives, away from each other for three months. Then, we will return in August and pick up right where we left off. Summer comes as a time to relax and enjoy, and this one is going to be one of our last, because in just two short years, the real world is sitting there waiting for us.
Summer brings a time of joy to life and helps reenergize college students everywhere, but I would be lying if I told you I didn't miss those late nights of watching Pretty in Pink and polishing nails with my hall-mates all through the summer after freshman year. So let's soak it up. Here's to the last two weeks. As many tests as we may have on our plate, let's remember to stay up and laugh and deprive ourselves of sleep when there is no reason to be up because, let's be honest, we can sleep when we are dead.
