As I sit in this airplane, 36,000 feet in the air, I can’t help but compare it to my situation nine months ago. Back then, I was flying into the unknown. With my parents by my side, I was starting my new adventure: college. Little did I know where I was going, or who I was going to meet on the other side. Coming back home to Miami, on the other hand, I’m reflecting on my first year at college. My parents are no longer by my side. To my left and to my right are strangers that I have only become acquainted with over the past half an hour. That seems to be representative of the year as a whole.
Stepping onto campus on move-in day I remember the overwhelming number of emotions zooming through my mind. This was a new atmosphere filled with endless possibilities. There were four thousand new faces, four thousand potential relationships across this campus. On the other hand, I had to leave the two people that I knew: my parents. Tears were shed, last hugs parted, and suddenly there I was walking back to my dorm all alone; it’s a feeling that’s indescribable. It’s both liberating and frightening. You are completely alone. That is, until you find your college family. They are the people that you can turn to for anything. They make your days a little brighter, your grin a little wider, and your life a whole lot better.
Suddenly, the exciting thrill of it all fades after syllabus week, and you have to get to work. You start getting to know your professors in a way that you never got to know your high school teachers. Then, you develop your daily, almost mundane routine: wake up for that 8 a.m. class, eat breakfast, go to your 11 a.m., eat again, do homework, talk with your friends at dinner, sleep, repeat. Midterms come and go, and you can’t wait until winter break. Everything just goes so fast.
As I sit here, 36,000 feet in the air, I reflect. I think of all the memories I made with countless people. I recall the room that I became so familiar with, my fellow Sheahanites, my professors; everything just floods to my head at once. It has been one crazy year. While I am extremely excited to get back to the Sunshine State, I can’t help but think of everything I left behind.
To close up my first year, I want to thank a couple of people. To my professors, thank you for instilling in me a desire to work. Thank you for giving me knowledge whether it was about proper singing technique or the functions of the Golgi apparatus. Thank you for your patience with my endless questions. To my first roommate, although we weren’t friends -- not even in the slightest sense -- thank you for teaching me how it is to live with another human being. Thank you for sharing your space with me; it probably wasn’t easy for you as it wasn’t for me, but we got through it. And last, but definitely not least, to my college family (you know who you are), thank you for our late night talks where sometimes we laughed until we had tears streaming down our faces, or we just flat out cried. Thank you for lab parties with our skeleton friend. Thank you for allowing me to be in your lives, because I know how much you’ve changed mine.
As I sit here in the airplane, 36,000 feet in the air, I am so excited to go home as a new person, the person college has morphed me into. On the other hand, I can’t wait for next year, sophomore year, a year with a new room, new friends, and hopefully a handful of new memories. Until then, I hope everyone has a good and safe summer!
