Most of our college experience is in the rear view mirror. We have more yesterdays on this campus than we do tomorrows. On May 25th, we will go our separate ways to pursue a career in whatever we spent the last four years drowning ourselves in coffee and scribbling notes about. It was good, really good, but we cannot have each other forever because life will never be this easy or convenient again.
Some of us may be in each other's weddings or move into apartments in some big city together to cut the cost of rent in half. Maybe we will be the godparents' to one another's future children. Mostly, we will move on from each other. Not in an angry, screaming match, but life is going to interfere. It may happen slowly after graduation, but it will happen. Most of us will drift from each other's lives even with promises of lunch dates and happy hours. Job obligations, family things, and distance will be too powerful too overcome. We are going to take on adulthood just like these last four years have been teaching us to do and in the process we are going to give one another up.
We created this mismatched family for ourselves. A family that meant we were never really alone, even if we tried to be. There has always been someone to eat with, study with, go-out with, or binge-watch Netflix next to on the couch. There was constant support, advice, and laughter. Even sitting together in silence as we hunched over notebooks or stared at the glowing screens of our phone became natural.
A few short months from now we will stand together in the huge stadium in matching gowns and switch our tassels to the other side. Then we will move on; some of us to the other side of the country, others back to our parents' house to save money. As we finish the last bottle of whatever alcohol we chug to make it through that ceremony, we will make promises to keep in touch and meet regularly, but we all will know that it might not happen.
Us. This campus. Everything will change. New freshmen will move into our old dorm rooms and construction will be done on the ever-evolving buildings, but the four years we shared here will live on between us. All of the Applebee's Half-Apps, late nights dancing til our feet were sore, and random road trips will never die because they'll be held in our memories.
Whether you're destined to remain part of my life or we will only see each other at weddings, baby showers, and homecoming after this ends, just know that you are part of the change I have seen in myself. It could have been a night we spent laughing over Youtube videos instead of studying. It could have been the bottle of wine we split in our sweatpants when going out seemed too far out of reach. Maybe it was your silent presence pushing me to be better or the times we stressed over whatever was worth stressing over in that moment. Your role in the last four years, big or small, helped shape me into the person I am today.
Ten, fifteen, twenty years from now I will come across a photo of us all squished into the frame and way too overdressed for the dive bar we're going to. I will flashback to every laugh, shot, and all-nighter and be grateful that they happened, that we were there to share that moment.
