There always seems to be a flurry of activity at the end of the academic year. The Ospreys have returned to their nest behind the Swan Building, graduation is a scant 17 days away, classes are in the final stretch, in a little over a week on May 1 public places in Michigan will go smoke free and summer is looming. Of course it seems like this every year but there is a different sense about this one, being that it is my last run-up to summer as a college student.
Some of us may find the river to be just barely warm enough for one last excursion down the Mighty Muskegon. Some won’t care how cold the water is.
Weeknights blend into weekends as the realization that the end of this lifestyle becomes clearer and the effort not to miss a chance to make memories takes priority over everything else. Equally the neurons working overtime to find a new place to live close to the (hopefully) new job and all the new trappings therein and any other drastic shift that is about to happen.
After four years of counting down, it’s nearly done and certain words just seem to be sitting like an anvil on my chest. Words like Commencement, Debt, Bachelor Degree, Job.
There are other words that feel pretty darn good though. Words like Graduation, Degree, Alumnus, Finished, Party, Freedom.
Now there is the next step, be it baby or behemoth in size, and eventually a step after that and so on. The idea is to keep walking and while we may not all be taking the same path, hopefully we’re still moving forward. n