*tear...
A year has passed, and now we stand on the brink
of returning to a world where we are surrounded by
the paradox of everything, yet nothing being the
same. In a few days, we will reluctantly give our
hugs, and fighting the tears, say goodbye to the
people who were once just names on a sheet of
paper to return to people that we hugged and
fought tears to say goodbye to before we left. We
will leave our best friends to return to our best
friends. We will go back to places we came from,
and go back to the same things we did last summer
and every summer before. We will come into town on that same familiar road, and even though it has
been months, it will seem like only yesterday.
As you walk into your old bedroom, every emotion
will pass through you as you reflect on the way
your life has changed and the person you have
become. You suddenly realize that things that were
most important to you a year ago won't seem
to matter so much anymore, and the things you hold highest now,
no one at home will completely
understand. Who will you call first? Where are you
going to work? Who will be at the party on
Saturday night? What has everyone been up to? Who
from school will you keep in touch with? How long
before you actually start missing people barging
in without calling or knocking? Who will get
breadsticks with you at three in the morning? How
long until you adjust to sleeping in a room by
yourself?
*Then you realize how much things have changed.
You realize the hardest part of college is
balancing the two completely different worlds you
now live in, trying desperately to hold on to
everything, all the while trying to figure out
what you have to leave behind. In the matter of
one day's traveling time, we will leave our
world of living next door to our best friends,
walking across campus to eat, instant messenger,
8:00 classes, and perpetual procrastination to a
world that will seem foreign to us, despite the
fact that we have lived in it for nineteen years.*
But it is different now... we now know the meaning
of true friendship. We know whom we have kept in
touch with over the past year and whom we hold
dearest to our hearts. We've left our high school worlds to deal with the real world. We have
had our hearts broken. We have fallen in love.
We've helped our best friends through the
toughest times of their lives, something their
even best friends at home couldn't be there
for. We've stayed up all night just to be
there for a friend. We've partied the night
away, doing stupid stuff, but we were always there
for each other afterwards. There have been times
when we've felt so helpless being hours away
from home when we know our families or friends
need us most, and there are times when we know we have made a difference.
A few days from now, we will leave. A few days
from now, we take down our pictures and pack up
our clothes. No more going next door to do nothing
for hours on end. We will leave our friends whose
random emails and phone calls will bring us to
laughter and tears this summer. We will take our
memories and dreams and put them away for now,
saving them for our return to this world.
A few days from now, we will dig deep inside to
find the strength and conviction to adjust to
change and still keep each other close. And
somehow, in someway, we will find our place
between these two worlds.
of returning to a world where we are surrounded by
the paradox of everything, yet nothing being the
same. In a few days, we will reluctantly give our
hugs, and fighting the tears, say goodbye to the
people who were once just names on a sheet of
paper to return to people that we hugged and
fought tears to say goodbye to before we left. We
will leave our best friends to return to our best
friends. We will go back to places we came from,
and go back to the same things we did last summer
and every summer before. We will come into town on that same familiar road, and even though it has
been months, it will seem like only yesterday.
As you walk into your old bedroom, every emotion
will pass through you as you reflect on the way
your life has changed and the person you have
become. You suddenly realize that things that were
most important to you a year ago won't seem
to matter so much anymore, and the things you hold highest now,
no one at home will completely
understand. Who will you call first? Where are you
going to work? Who will be at the party on
Saturday night? What has everyone been up to? Who
from school will you keep in touch with? How long
before you actually start missing people barging
in without calling or knocking? Who will get
breadsticks with you at three in the morning? How
long until you adjust to sleeping in a room by
yourself?
*Then you realize how much things have changed.
You realize the hardest part of college is
balancing the two completely different worlds you
now live in, trying desperately to hold on to
everything, all the while trying to figure out
what you have to leave behind. In the matter of
one day's traveling time, we will leave our
world of living next door to our best friends,
walking across campus to eat, instant messenger,
8:00 classes, and perpetual procrastination to a
world that will seem foreign to us, despite the
fact that we have lived in it for nineteen years.*
But it is different now... we now know the meaning
of true friendship. We know whom we have kept in
touch with over the past year and whom we hold
dearest to our hearts. We've left our high school worlds to deal with the real world. We have
had our hearts broken. We have fallen in love.
We've helped our best friends through the
toughest times of their lives, something their
even best friends at home couldn't be there
for. We've stayed up all night just to be
there for a friend. We've partied the night
away, doing stupid stuff, but we were always there
for each other afterwards. There have been times
when we've felt so helpless being hours away
from home when we know our families or friends
need us most, and there are times when we know we have made a difference.
A few days from now, we will leave. A few days
from now, we take down our pictures and pack up
our clothes. No more going next door to do nothing
for hours on end. We will leave our friends whose
random emails and phone calls will bring us to
laughter and tears this summer. We will take our
memories and dreams and put them away for now,
saving them for our return to this world.
A few days from now, we will dig deep inside to
find the strength and conviction to adjust to
change and still keep each other close. And
somehow, in someway, we will find our place
between these two worlds.