Humidity immediately clings to my body as I exit the taxi that has brought me from the airport. The smell of warm grass, once strongly associated with preseason football, immediately floods my nostrils as the field next door greets me once again.

Internally, the butterflies flutter with a new vigor. Was I this nervous this time last year? What is causing this excitement? Is it the anticipation of starting another semester of classes? Well, maybe a little, but not exactly.

Mostly, it's the excitement of seeing my friends. It's coming back to my home away from home, where everything seems absolutely perfect. My friends and I share our lives with one another, helping each other through our challenges and celebrating our successes — it feels like an extended family.

One by one, I run into my friends and give them the biggest hugs I can. Given that it feels like like years have passed since our last interactions, why wouldn't I? We help each other unpack, we sit and talk for hours while organizing our rooms and we have not a single worry in the world.

Eventually, however, you can no longer hide from the odyssey that lies ahead. Classes have started; it's time to focus.

Months pass. I don't see the friends who live down the hall for multiple weeks at a time. Occasionally, I run into them in passing and catch up as quickly as possible. There's not enough time in the day, but we do spend the little time we have together by sharing laughter, drinks and stories.

At the same time, I find that I have stumbled upon a new batch of potential friends: the friends with whom I'm working to put on a show at the end of the semester. As we get closer to performing it, the bonds strengthen. It always surprises me how close a group of people can get in such a short time.

It seems to happen every semester, when my fellow cast and crew members become huge parts of my life. Once, I was supposed to be brothers with a guy, and by the end of the production, I felt like he was one of the best friends I'd ever had. I was absolutely astonished to see how the bond between our characters bled over to reality. Similar bonds have formed in every show I've been in.

The thing I'm never surprised about?

Most of these new friends? They're seniors.

Awesome. Freaking fantastic.

I dread the end of the year. Is it the finals? Well, once I watched four seasons of "Game of Thrones" in five days when a final was a week away. True story. So no, it's probably not the finals.

Again, I think that it is the people — especially in this scenario, one that I've experienced far too many times. We sprint through our friendship and quickly become close friends, only for them to move on from MIT and into their next chapter.

BOOOOOO LIFE! BOOOOO! Why do you do this to us?

I wish, in some ways, that I could join them instead of going through another year of school. I don't want them to leave, but I know they need to.

A comforting thought is that the friends in my year, the ones who have truly become my strongest support, will return with me soon. I'll see them in August, and all will be great again.

But that's when I get slapped in the face with the reality that junior year is over. I'll only return to this home away from home and experience its late-August serenity one more time — and then I'll need to say goodbye to the friends who have been through everything with me.

That sounds like the worst experience ever. It hasn't even started, yet I'm already dreading the end of next semester, which is most likely the last semester I'll have at MIT. Will the butterflies I experience in late August be rooted in excitement or fear?

I don't want to lose these friends. I don't want to have to wait years at a time to see them, but that's what will most likely end up happening. I have only one more block of time when we live down the hall from one another.

So what am I going to do? Not allow the stupid little errands that fill up the semester to prevent me from seeing these wonderful people as much as I can.

My goal: I will never hear anyone say, "Garrett, where have you been? I haven't seen you in weeks."

All of my friends mean a lot to me. I love all of them, as all of them have helped me become the person I am today. We have sung drunken karaoke at three in the morning, we've lip synced to "#Selfie," we've laughed together, we've cried together and we have sat in silence, simply appreciating our closeness. But the ones who have been with me from the start, they get the benefit of my new realization. These people mean too much to me to allow short, matchstick events to interfere with the long friendships I hope to have with them.

In that way, I look forward to what we conquer in the coming year.

Have a safe summer, everyone!