Summer Days (OR: Tomorrow's gonna come too soon)

Finals week is bringing me to a state I'm not all that accustomed to: a calm determination I've not experienced as much as maybe I should. I suppose that I haven't really needed to go into panic mode like I have the last few years or so. I guess making it to class day in, day out is actually a brilliant idea and should be imitated by some of my peers. All goes well and I'll be back in Bowling Green.

As for the meantime, I had in interesting recall yesterday, while in the shower of all places. (I know some people say that you do your best thinking in the shower, but I tend to do mine while mowing or driving.)

Like the majority of people on this planet, I'm a creature of habit. I wake up about half an hour before class, or kill time until I have half an hour till class. Dinner is usually a each day, and lunch is almost constant. This changes from one semester to the next, depending on a few things.

The last thing I do before I get to bed in take a shower (growing up in a house of five, you learned to get warm showers whenever it is possible). And as I stepped into the showers on the seventh floor, I suddenly remembered those first few hours alone in Keen Hall. My parents, my sister, and my girlfriend were all on their way home. All my other friends were still in Ohio...hell, Ohio was still my true home. And on that evening in August, I was as alone as I've ever been. I knew exactly one person. That would change soon enough, but for the moment, I finally grasped the reality of all this.

For the next nine months, this was home. This was were I'd eat, sleep, and live out the day-to-day. I'd be home, but not very long. These people, I'd grow with, learn with, all that generic stuff. It was all a little overwhelming, but I promised I'd make the most of it.

And I just about have. Like almost any long experience, I've had things I wished I had done differently, but overall, I'm pleased with my time here. Marching band, the thing that made high school bearable, helped soften the blow. It introduced people as nerdy as me to me. I met close friends, eventual foes, and plenty of....intriguing folk, to say the least. And soon, I'd meet some of the closest people I've ever known.

Now, the day-to-day is over. Finals week is a different beast enitrely. And I have so much to do before I leave this world behind for the coming months. It isn't going to be easy, saying goodbye. I've shared so much time with so many people, and even more with a few. They are the ones I'll remember: the faces, the voices, the true friends who've been there. The ones I'll actually talk to late into the night when they pop up on AIM.

To you, I say thanks. Thanks for the memories made, and the memories yet to be made. Here's to surviving the summer, and those familiar welcome-back hugs in August. Here's to drunken weekends, and Thursday night "country drives." Here's to every cry of "you skank!" that was heard down the hall.

Here's to what made us who we are, different even from the nervous, anxious freshman we were when we started it all.

Summer will be different with you. And without you.