You don’t realize how close you are with a person/people until it comes to a (temporary) end. As I sit on my twin XL bed, packing away my freshman year, alternating between folding and crying, I am overwhelmed by a debilitating sadness. Sadness, mainly, over the fact that this moment in my life is over. Despite the fact that I will be back in Auburn, with these same people, in just three short months, I can’t help but feel like this moment is fleeting, not infinite. College is beautifully depressing in that you do truly have to say goodbye to those around you, due to the fact that everyone is from everywhere. Unlike high school, you do not leave the campus and return to your neighborhood with the same friends you were just in class with. No, when finals wrap up and rooms are packed, everyone returns to their old lives.
I suppose the reason I am struggling so much with physically leaving is due to the fact that for the past 18 years of my life, I never really found people I couldn’t imagine my life without. This same time last year, as I packed away my high school book bag and said goodbye to people I would never see again, felt nothing. I may have been a little reluctant to leave some of my closest friends, but even then, I do not believe that sad would have been an accurate description of myself. Flash forward just one short year, and I am crying into the shoulder of my closest friend and trying to avoid the fact that I would probably not see her again before we went our separate ways.
What is truly astonishing though is the fact that I will indeed see these people in just three short months. They will all return and we will all pick back up where we left off, the only differences being in our tanned skin and renewed minds. With this thought, I will conclude. It’s been real (depressing/ wonderful/ eye-opening/ stressful), but I wouldn’t change any moment or feeling.
Until next time.
cait_henderson 