Birthday Parties, Exams and Final Laps

-Hey it happened. It actually happened. The end of the school year snuck up and pulled down all of our pants. Then it put its leg behind all of us and knocked us over. So now we are sprawled out on the ground with our jeans around our ankles, which is never a good position to be in. Trust me, it just ends up badly. We are in a predicament; blindsided, caught off guard, and unable to stand correctly. The end of another school year is here and no one is really ready for it. Sure we are ready on some levels. No more stupidity from the extra tall simians living on your floor. No more evil looks and snide smiles from the poodles and yorkie dogs living down the hall. The chance to get away from the plastic cliques and drama hungry groups that surround us. No more passive aggressive, gray hair inducing herds of people walking around. No more NorthFace junkies. No more daily struggle between the Knoll and Commons. No more last minute papers and completely forgotten reading assignments. No more fruit smeared on the walls. No more eating by someone else’s hours. I wish I could say that there will be no morning early mornings and late nights, but who are we kidding. We are trading in reading textbooks for making big bucks. What do we have waiting for us once we return to all of our respective states and places? Jobs that we can not stand, do not want and will not pay enough. Responsibilities forced upon us, big ones that weigh way too much to hold on our own. Families that love us but have no idea how to handle us, communicate to us, appreciate us, support us or even how to be there for us; but I think they are trying really hard. Friends and siblings who no longer know who we are or what we are.
That is no ones fault, it just happens. We go out into separate worlds and come back changed and molded and transformed. With brand new scars and bullet holes, and nice shiny band-aids to cover them all with. Mine have Batman on them, he is the best. Although that IronMan movie was pretty sick. But I’m retro. See, right there; something new that you might not know about me. Our lives change on the half hour, every thirty minutes we are new and changed. Sort of like tanning, you have to flip over otherwise you will end up getting burned. But thirty minutes happens so often, you couldn’t even make cookies in that amount of time, or get through an episode of Grey’s Anatomy. You could watch Samantha Who though. At least she had amnesia and gets to be new and it’s accepted, we have to return back and just fall into the routine. Which is madness because we are all just getting back from war. That is what a college year is like. It’s like going over seas and coming back changed, and not always for the good. A word can make you think of an inside joke. An alarm clock can make you think it’s time for class. An entire day can be thrown off because you didn’t have to sit at a desk. Plus there is no way to explain what it was like “over there”; it’s awful and gut wrenching and blood curdling and exhausting and brilliant and wonderful and you don’t want to go back to being a civilian. You want the battle, the smell of the gun smoke and the sound of the artillery going off around you; and least you now know how to fight that battle.
So we are about to be reintroduced into out natural habitats, and I don’t think we are ready. But I have noticed a few things; the end coming is not always a bad thing. Well it is, but it has some good things inside of it. First the end makes you realize what really matters. All of this academia, yea, that needs to go. Seriously! College was created and is still happening only to get us ready for the real world, if you happen to get an education along the way well then more power to you. But if you seriously think that we are here to garner some knowledge, you need to up your caffeine dosage. Classes are only important if you want them to be, or if it is has to do with you career. What matters are the people who make you want to get up in the morning and leave your not-so-comfortable school issued mattress. Even if the damn thing is full of springs and possibly the remains of a small animal, it can be more appealing then the outside world. So please remember to remind those who get you out of the crapmatress that they mean something to you. I was sitting in my exam and I realized that I would not benefit from knowing who wrote in iambic pentameter during the Renaissance or who thought the Italian sonnet was the worse one. Which is dumb because Italians are amazing in everything. What matters is people. And the fear of losing them is not a bad thing. I know it can be overwhelming and make you feel like a zillion emotions are about to explode out of you, but that is good so embrace it. Worrying about losing or missing someone is an amazing thing, because there is something to miss. There is good to be missed. So whether you are standing in a birthday party thinking about who really matters in your life, or sitting in an exam wondering how you are going to live without the people you love, or running your last lap on the track thinking of who you want to have walking beside you; always remember that I am doing my best to love you and be there for you.