This is the End

Tomorrow I will be graduating from college.

My mind still can't wrap around the idea that this day has come. Where did the last four years go? I remember graduating high school and buying dorm supplies, worried about what it would be like to leave home and not know anyone.

I moved out of my dorm yesterday. I'm going to miss that room (I've been in the exact one for three years). I'm going to miss my loft. And my view out the window, where I could distract myself from homework by people-watching. And easily getting dinner in the caf with friends. I loved being on campus and I'm probably one of the few people who will say that.

How could I leave this place? I have so many good memories here.

I remember a group of us hanging out in a dorm room and watching a movie late at night on the eve of MSU's first snow day in sixteen years during my freshman year. I remember hanging out in the quad of Armstrong Hall during my sophomore year and that one of my roommates secretly kept a teacup Yorkshire terrier in the dorm. I remember having a girl's night with my church ministry in my junior year, where we made gingerbread cookies (even though it was only Nov 30) and painted nails. I remember standing out in the rain during multiple football games during my senior year, my parents coming up to visit in order to celebrate my 21st birthday, and Senior Appreciation Night.

Tomorrow I must leave the place I've grown to love and acknowledge the fact that my time as a college undergrad is over.

I've learned so much over the course of four years: about myself, about friendship, and the material in my classes (even if sometimes my grades didn't reflect that :/ ).

I feel so blessed to have been give the chance to go to college here. I will always look back on these years fondly.

I hope that, in some small way, I have made a difference in a few lives while I lived on campus and met so many new people.

Thank you, Michigan State University. It has been totally awesome.

(Ten point to whoever understands my italicized reference above.)