chapter2...

I graduate tomorrow. From college. The day that seemed forever and ever away. Four years can sneak up on a person pretty quick. So I will finally have a degree. And a chance at that big job, a real career. But all I can think about is everything I am leaving behind. It's so easy to see why adults talk about the college years with glazed over eyes. They remember what it was like, what they left behind. You meet your best friends, get away with hell on earth, and somehow survive to tell the story. Well, at least the parts you can remember.

So for a day that is such a wonderful celebration, it wraps up a period that most of us aren't quite ready to let go of. The family I forged from six amazing girls, all of which impacted me in their own little way, more than I could ever express or thank them in words. Molding a wide variety of personalities into one little house, and sticking together for better or worse, because hey, that's all you have. It's your friends who party like rockstars with you at fraternity parties (until you realize that they are really not cool), your friends who take your temperature and put a cold cloth on your forehead when you're too sick to move, your friends that turn a staircase into a gigantic mountain that must be conquered with a sled, and your friends that let you bawl your eyes out and curse the crazy bastard who broke your heart again, even when they saw it coming all along. They let you steal their groceries. Give you rides when there's no way you will ever make it to class on time. Buy you matching tube socks, with stripes. Pick you up at 3am with a smile on their face. Put off their homework when you need to talk. Give pick-me-off-the-ground hugs that brighten your whole day. Dance to 80's music without reservation. That's what friends do.

And then you have to leave them. And grow up. But I am not ready. I'm not ready to leave that behind.

Anna, Bridget, Liz, Maygan, Megan, and Shawndra. Thank you for you. And thank you for putting up with me. I couldn't ask for better roommates or friends. May the memories of the BR and MC live on forever :)