--a reflection.

So as I sit here, I think about the fact that I am no longer a part of the Campbell University student body. I am not in Buies Creek at this moment unpacking and decorating and gearing up for another year of academic bliss. I am not catching up with friends about the summer and hearing about all the adventures that were had. It hasn't exactly hit me, hit me...yet. But I do think about the fact that I have two good friends who are now teachers. I have a friend who has just left today for a year to teach in South Korea. Another friend is off to teach in Hungary. I also have another friend who will be leaving in a few months to serve our country for a year in Afghanistan. I have a few other friends who are beginning graduate school this year..or continuing in their 3/2 programs. This realization is so surreal for me. I am a college graduate. And my life will never be the same. I will never be the same. My friends will never be the same. We are growing up a little more everyday. We are all moving forward with our lives and striving to meet the goals that we have for ourselves. Each of us have chosen a different path to take, yet we are still a part of each other. I know I carry a piece of each of my friends in my heart. There are little things that I hold dear that I can have to help ease the fact that we are no longer in the same small town on the same college campus. I have stories, pictures, and songs that are all apart of my memory of my time at Campbell. All the late night talks, walks, and numerous adventures in the Harnett/Wake county area have ingrained themselves in my mind. I remember dreaming together with friends about the future, I remember late night chats and walks around campus and being up to no good--which really wasn't bad at all. I remember the ridiculous things we came up with in our heads to add comic relief to our oh so boring lives. The songs that were written or sung on many a late nights being "caught" by the security guards as we sang our hearts out to Phantom of the Opera. It's times like this that I wish I could go back to the simple insanity of college life. Oh, how I miss it. Even if there was an unnecessary amount of drama, it all helped me learn about how to deal with conflicts and learn very valuable life lessons. I just wish I didn't take it for granted. I wish that I had more so enjoyed the moments I had...rather than wish the years away. Four years came and went in the blink of an eye. Time has not slowed, rather it has picked up its pace. I can only hope to hold onto the now and not get left in the dust. I have yet to grasp the true reality of where I am now. The fact that I do not start classes on Wednesday is not fully registered. I am hoping now that I hear soon about the job I applied for. I feel like once I hear back, and especially if it's a positive thing, then reality will hit me. Hopefully it won't hurt, but hopefully be a refreshing reminder of this new stage that I am in life. I just hope it doesn't hurt too much when the reality comes. The reality that my closest friends are not close by anymore. That with time we will change. In that time we will grow older, wiser, and further apart. Not because it's a bad thing, but because that is the natural progression of life. I experienced this when I graduated from high school. It was only natural. I got over that change, but this time it's different. These people are my family. My brothers and sisters. Hindsight is always 20/20. Why can't my foresight be wiser?



Change is all around me. Job, grad school, family, life in general. It's time for me to buckle in and hold on for the ride. I only hope that my precious memories will continue to be sweet remembrances and a reflection on the goodness that was the four years I spent at Campbell. A mirror of who I was, am, and will become.