You step out of the car to be greeted by enthusiastic RAs, who are ready to help you move into your brand new dorm. Part of you feels so excited to be on your own. The other part of you is terrified, but you’ll never let your parents know that. You can’t count how many "It’s Great To Be A Hawkeye" shirts you see because someone has one on everywhere you turn. Is the west side really the best side and is Burge really that dirty?
You take a deep breath, wipe off the tears that you cried when you said goodbye to your home best friend before the drive here, and start rolling carts of bedding, furniture, clothes, and toiletries up to your room. It isn’t as big as you thought it would be, but you can make it work. You meet the people who live on your floor who are also moving in. Some have already finished. You think that these are going to be the people that you will be friends with, but, most likely, you’ll find other ones. You sweat, you cry, you curse, and fight with your mom, but, at the end of the day, you’re moved in and your parents are ready to say goodbye.
You hold back the tears and hug your family. “I’ll see you really soon. Call me when you get home. Drive safely.” How am I going to do this? How am I going to get through college on my own? How am I going to make friends when I’m living with a stranger and I don’t actually know anyone for 300 miles? How am I going to figure out what I’m doing with my life in the next four years?
Fast forward to now. It is the very last week of senior year and move-in day seems like yesterday. All that separates you from a degree are a couple of days and a couple of exams. You’ve already started packing your things and you’ve subleased your apartment for the summer. Your family booked their hotel for commencement and made dinner reservations to celebrate your achievements.
How could four years have gone by so fast? It doesn’t make sense how someplace that started out so foreign could become home so quickly. You couldn’t imagine going to school anywhere else and have so much pride and respect for the black and gold. You have seen friends come and go. You’ve pulled all-nighters at the library. You’ve cheered the Hawkeyes on to victory and you have been conditioned to hate Iowa State. From picking a major and falling in love with it to suffering through the gen. eds and some of the hardest classes that you’ve ever taken, approaching the finish line is still bittersweet. People who were just strangers to you have become your closest friends and now you have to choose who you want to keep in your life and who will fade away. College was your time to find yourself and to become who you truly wanted to be. Now, the world is your oyster. You can be that person anywhere you want to go, with nothing holding you back. For some of us, that means graduate school and ignoring the crippling student loan debt for a little while longer. For others, it means internships abroad, a 9-5 job in the city, or moving to another state for a fresh start. You can’t imagine not seeing your best friends every day because, unlike every other year, you won’t be back next fall. You’ll go your separate ways until the next time when you plan a trip to visit campus as an alumnus. It’s a scary and sad thought that makes you want to cling to this place and never leave.
Iowa City, thank you for all of the memories and for all of the ups and downs. Thank you for showing me that you don’t have to conform to what everyone else is doing to be cool when you’re a freshman. Thank you for the communal showers that made '90s pop karaoke shower parties possible. Thank you for showing me that it’s okay to join Greek life as a sophomore and to make friends who you wish you would have met from day one. Thank you for knocking me down and teaching me that rules are meant to be followed (shout out to the Iowa City Police Department). Thank you for the nights when I stayed up late crying because the stress was too much to handle and for leading me to friends who would crawl into my bed and cry right beside me. Thank you for showing me that Kinnick Stadium is the best place to be on any given Saturday during football season. Thank you for making me who I am and for showing me just how strong I am. I wanted to quit and go home. I wanted to change career paths because I didn’t think that I was cut out for what I really wanted to do. Thanks to The University of Iowa, I am successful. I didn’t give up and I made it to the end of the line.
Thank you, Mom and Dad, for supporting me and for never letting me give up, no matter how many times you had to threaten to pull me out of school for me to actually shape up my act. Thanks for answering the phone at all hours of the night because I just needed to talk or because a boy hurt my feelings (shout out to my mom). I couldn’t picture my college experience anywhere else and I can’t picture leaving here now. It doesn’t seem real that we will be throwing our caps in the air and walking out of Carver-Hawkeye Arena as college graduates. However, the truth is, we have seen it all and we have done everything that there is to do. Here’s to you, Iowa. Thank you for one crazy ride and for four years that I will definitely consider the best years of my life. You will be missed, but not forgotten because you know that I won’t be able to stay away for too long.
On Iowa, go Hawks.
