You never think it is going to be you.
Freshman year the seniors in your classes tell you how jealous they are of you, and that you still have three more years. And you never really think about how one day, you are going to leave this place. You don't think about how it is going to fly by. You don't think about the fact you are going to say goodbye to the people you've met and to the place that has somehow taken a hold of your heart.
Then you flash to senior year. You don't really know how you got here. From the late night Bagel and Deli to the long hours you survived in King library, you are still wondering how these years have flown by. How can it be that you will put on that red cap and gown when you can still picture your high school self buying a Miami T-shirt after being accepted?
How did we go from getting lost trying to find McGuffey Hall to navigating FSB so easily?
You can't explain this to anyone, though. You can't explain to a freshman how their life is about to change. You can't tell them to hold on to every moment because one day it is going to end.
Miami is a place you do not ever want to leave. It's something special only those who are here come to know. You can't convey the experience you had here to anyone except your roommate that drags you to the hockey games or to the best friend who forces you to go uptown. You can't put into words what it felt like to fall in love with a place.
There is something that happens when you flashback to first stepping onto this campus. Freshman and sophomore year feels like a blur. The feeling of walking down your dorm hallway and feeling you belong somewhere will stay with you. That freshman year common room has seen more tears, laughs, and fallen pepperonis than anywhere else in the world.
I fell in love for the first time in Benton Hall.
I felt real failure for the first time in Irvin Hall.
I felt real success for the first time in Upham Hall.
I felt purpose for the first time in Harrison Hall.
I was captivated by how big the world is when I stepped foot onto the Luxembourg soil-- how I am so small and there is still so much to learn, even beyond Miami's campus.
Walking past all the Fraternity houses, down slant walk, and underneath the Upham arch is not comparable.
We were so excited to show our families our new lives. And now we are showing them in retrospect.
Miami is a whirlwind I am so thankful to have been swept up in. There is nowhere else like it. Here we are, about to leave. No matter where life brings you, you will always have a little piece of this place with you.
"All roads don't lead to Oxford. To get here, you have to want to get here. But once you're here, you never want to leave." And all of us know, there is nothing truer than this.
