WOW thanks Ali!
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, and yet nothing being
the same.
In two weeks we will reluctantly give our hugs
and fighting the tears, say goodbye to 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 ever left. We will leave our
best friends to return to our best friends. We
will go back to the places we came from and go
back to the same things we did last summer and
every summer before that. 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 the things that
were most important to you a year ago don't
seem to matter so much anymore, and the things you
hold highest now, no one at home will completely
understand. The memories and the stories from
school won't mean anything to anyone at home
and yet you resent them for that, that they
can't share that happiness with you.
Who will you call first? What will you do your
first weekend home with your friends? How long
before you actually start missing people barging
in without calling or knocking? Who will get pizza
at three in the morning with you now? How long
until you adjust to sleeping alone in a room
again? Then you start to realize how much things
have changed, and 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, 8:00am classes, and the
perpetual procrastination to a world that will
seem foreign to us despite the fact that we lived
in it for eighteen years.
But it is different now. We now know the meaning
of true friendship. We know who we have kept in
touch with over the past year and who we hold
dearest in our hearts. We've left our high
school world to deal with the real world.
We've had our hearts broken, we've
fallen in love, we've helped our best friends
overcome depression, stress and death, and
we've stayed up all night on the phone just
to talk to a friend in need.
There have been times when we've felt so
helpless being hours away from home when we know
our families needed us, and there are times we
know we have made a difference. Two months from
now we will leave. Two weeks 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 email
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. Two weeks from now we
will arrive. We will unpack our bags and have
dinner with our families. We will drive over to
our best friend's house and do nothing for
hours on end. We will return to the same friends
whose random emails and phone calls have brought
us to laughter and tears over the year. We will
unpack old dreams and memories that have been put
away for the past year. In two weeks we will dig
deep inside to find the strength and conviction to
adjust to change and still keep each other close.
And somehow, in some way, we will find our place
between these two completely different worlds.
returning to a world where we are surrounded by
the paradox of everything, and yet nothing being
the same.
In two weeks we will reluctantly give our hugs
and fighting the tears, say goodbye to 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 ever left. We will leave our
best friends to return to our best friends. We
will go back to the places we came from and go
back to the same things we did last summer and
every summer before that. 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 the things that
were most important to you a year ago don't
seem to matter so much anymore, and the things you
hold highest now, no one at home will completely
understand. The memories and the stories from
school won't mean anything to anyone at home
and yet you resent them for that, that they
can't share that happiness with you.
Who will you call first? What will you do your
first weekend home with your friends? How long
before you actually start missing people barging
in without calling or knocking? Who will get pizza
at three in the morning with you now? How long
until you adjust to sleeping alone in a room
again? Then you start to realize how much things
have changed, and 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, 8:00am classes, and the
perpetual procrastination to a world that will
seem foreign to us despite the fact that we lived
in it for eighteen years.
But it is different now. We now know the meaning
of true friendship. We know who we have kept in
touch with over the past year and who we hold
dearest in our hearts. We've left our high
school world to deal with the real world.
We've had our hearts broken, we've
fallen in love, we've helped our best friends
overcome depression, stress and death, and
we've stayed up all night on the phone just
to talk to a friend in need.
There have been times when we've felt so
helpless being hours away from home when we know
our families needed us, and there are times we
know we have made a difference. Two months from
now we will leave. Two weeks 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 email
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. Two weeks from now we
will arrive. We will unpack our bags and have
dinner with our families. We will drive over to
our best friend's house and do nothing for
hours on end. We will return to the same friends
whose random emails and phone calls have brought
us to laughter and tears over the year. We will
unpack old dreams and memories that have been put
away for the past year. In two weeks we will dig
deep inside to find the strength and conviction to
adjust to change and still keep each other close.
And somehow, in some way, we will find our place
between these two completely different worlds.