I recently finished the old but popular show “The Office.” For those of you who are not familiar with it, it's filmed (literally) through the lens of a camera crew shooting a documentary, capturing the banality of the American workplace. This show is filled with looney-yet-loveable characters working at a paper supply company in Scranton, PA. The decision to film at arguably the most boring place ever allows the show to focus on the interactions and relationships of the characters.

Besides the fact I was parting with (fictional) people I had committed three years of my life to, watching the finale was surprisingly emotional. The characters still engaged in their quick wit and hilarious banter, but during each aside a touch of nostalgia and sentiment was added as they reflected on their nine-year journey at Dunder Mifflin Paper Company. All were thankful for the lifelong friends they had made, something that, without the job, wouldn't have happened. They agreed it may not have been the most rewarding or intellectually stimulating career, but the place became their home with people that became their family.

I’ve done quite a bit of reflecting this summer over my freshman year of college. Parts were amazing and others more unpleasant, but like in "The Office," I became family with the people I spent the most time with. Girls that I roomed with and may not have even become friends with are now like my sisters. Days when school was a grind and sleep was a thing of fantasies, it's my friends that I remember getting me through it. My love for them is the true lasting memory of freshman year.

My favorite quote from the final episode is, “I wish there was a way to know you’re in the good old days before you’ve actually left them.” This really struck a cord with me, as a young adult living in New York City. I dare say I am in my “good old days” right now, and as I return to the city in a couple of days my goal is to live everyday enjoying the places I'm blessed to be in and not taking for granted the people I’m with.

It’s pessimistic to think we are limited to one time in life that we consider our “good old days.” Each day of life brings something new and rewarding, something worth cherishing or something to learn from. I hope to look back on my time in college as the good old days, but I don’t want those days to end just because college did. I want to live in a way that I can find the beauty and joy in the banality, so when I look back on my life, they were all the good old days.

I’m ending my summer to start a new episode of my college experience and I couldn’t be more excited to enjoy every moment, be content with where I am, who I’m with, and make memories to go in the “good old days.