December 10, 2024

Well, the title lays it plain. College is over, at least from me. Well, to be more accurate, I’ve passed only some of the hurdles to graduation. To my credit, they are the most laborious. It’s an odd feeling, this. About a week ago I had my last class. A couple days later I finished my last project. I got my last grades back a day or two later. I have my last office shift in a day or two. Then I’ll move out some time before Christmas, then leave for my Spring adventure. Then I’ll come back to walk and actually graduate. It’s one of the biggest, if not the biggest, chapter-turnings I’ll have and it is happening in stages. Each step closer is a little relief, but I must say it feels rather anticlimactic. There is much to celebrate, and it is hard to know the right time to do it.

It has been a semester for the books. I wrote and hosted my biggest and best murder mystery dinner party, as well as a social experiment party (each guest had to design and carry out an original social experiment), and I’m writing another MMDP (that’s what I call them) set in Camelot. I trained for and ran a rather awesome marathon (see blog #129). I got a job at the Global Experience Office and (hopefully) supported a handful of students to have awesome experiences abroad, the same experiences which have been so enriching for me. I conducted funded original research that will soon be submit for journal review. I lived alone in an awesome off campus apartment. I played an insane amount of pool and got kind of nasty (see post #128) I passed all my classes and am set to graduate in great standing. I am reflective in so much as I am grateful, grateful for all that I have been able to do and see, for all the wherewithal and gumption it took to do and see those things, and for everything I ever took for granted.

Even more than I feel positivity radiating temporary backwards, I feel it looking forwards. In a few short weeks I embark upon my by-far most ambitious adventure yet. More and more, as the fateful departure day draws nearer, I have found myself struck with almost flashback-like cravings of the first moments of exploring a new city on foot, of haggling across language, of trying a food which has no translation, and of looking around and being struck with disbelief that I am so lucky, that this is my life. Soon. The road calls! I plan to answer.