When I first started attending Florida State University, I could care less about my alma mater. I didn't go to football games, I wasn't passionate about my university's name, I just didn't care too much. I was pretty unabashedly unenthusiastic about my university.
Flash forward to present day, senior year. As I prepare to graduate from this beautiful university, I can't help but recognize all the wonderful things that this place has granted me over my four years studying here. I have grown so much since those first days on campus when I was a lonely, awkward, hardworking bookworm. I'm still just as hardworking, and I'm still quite the bookworm, but over the duration of my undergraduate career at Florida State I quickly shed the loneliness and the awkwardness (I would hope, at least) as I began to grow into the young woman I am today - the young woman who is graduating in less than a month, and leaving Florida State behind.
I love my school. I love the brick buildings, the quote above the doorway of Dodd Hall, 
the Museum of Fine Arts, Market Wednesdays in the Union; I love my professors, my research mentors, all of the people who have encouraged my passion for education and history and helped me to grow into the intellectual I am proud to say I am. Let's reminisce together upon some of my favorite moments from my time as a student at Florida State, shall we?
1. Hangs on Landis Green Freshman Year with my first friend, Sarah Hart.
Freshman year was a rough one for me. Everything was new, and everything was scary. And then one day, in Statistics class, the girl next to me commented on my F. Scott Fitzgerald tote bag, and we became instant friends. Sarah Hart was the first friend I had the honor of making all by myself in college. We spent months and months adventuring together, climbing trees, having sleepovers, and sipping good coffee. Some of my favorite memories are of our hangouts on Landis Green, her strumming her guitar, me reading a novel, the sun warm on our faces. She's still one of my dearest friends, and I have Florida State to thank for bringing us together.
2. Nights spent stargazing in Astronomy Lab with my new friend Kelly Scandone.
Making friends was a daunting task for me for my first two years at Florida State, but somehow I managed to meet another beautiful human in another of my classes Sophomore year. Kelly Scandone and I started talking in Astronomy Lab, where she complimented my Les Miserables shirt (yes, I am a musical nerd, too). We spent our nights chatting about musicals and gazing through telescopes at stars, working together to get our lab worksheets done as quickly as we could. Without Astronomy Lab, without Florida State, I would never have met this sweet soul - who has quickly become one of my dearest, most beloved friends.
3. Being welcomed into Lady Spirithunters alongside my best friend Elizabeth Oester.
If you read my last article, you know how much Lady Spirithunters has impacted my life. One of my favorite memories of my time at Florida State was the Lady Spirithunters new member banquet that I attended Sophomore year. Being inducted into this wonderful organization with my best friend Elizabeth was one of the most exciting, exhilarating nights of my life. We've made countless memories with each other and our fellow Spirithunters since that night - but that was the night that started it all. I am so blessed to have her, and to have experienced so much through Spirithunters with her by my side.
4. Presenting my research at the Undergraduate Research Symposium with my friend Jamie Karnes.
Undergraduate research is an overlying theme of my time at Florida State; I am heavily involved in the research culture on campus, and one of the experiences that really stands out in my mind was when Jamie and I presented our research together at the Undergraduate Research Symposium. We were both students in the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program, and, without that program, I wouldn't have found such a wonderful friend in Jamie. Sharing our passion for our research with each other, and with those we met at the symposium, was such an exciting feeling, and I wouldn't trade that experience for anything.
5. Movie nights (Rocky Horror, especially) at the SLC.
One of my favorite places on campus, the Student Life Cinema, holds a myriad of memories for me. My roommates and I would traverse to the SLC, scantily clad in corsets and fishnets, every October to view the Rocky Horror Picture Show at midnight; Kelly and I cried over Me, Earl, and the Dying Girl; Sarah and I cried over Short Term 12 - basically, lots of tears, and quite some laughter, have been shed and shared in the seats of the SLC. I experience so much nostalgia whenever I step through those doors to watch a film. It will be one of the things I miss the most when I leave Florida State.
Of course, these are only five bits of memory that I have connected with my time at my university. I've made so many memories here with so many beautiful people; I've spent countless hours in the library, in the SLC, in the union, in the HSF building, in the museum on campus. When I entered Florida State freshman year, I was already ready to leave. It wouldn't have been hard for me then to say goodbye. But now? Now, my heart hurts just thinking of leaving my alma mater.
At every Lady Spirithunters meeting, we chant the Florida State fight song together. Every time, I am reminded of how proud I've become to be a Florida State Seminole. Thank you, FSU, for the friends you've blessed me with, the professors you've inspired me with, and the memories we've shared.
