End of 2008-2009 School Year

June 17, 2009 - 10:55 AM

Well that's done.

What a quick year. As I was packing my apartment to leave it for good, I looked around and thought, "I don't know if I am done living here." My room felt like home, and I loved my roommates. But it was time to go. So I got all of the things packed into the bed of my dad's truck and left.

Junior year has ended. Now I am going to be a senior; it's so strange.

I was driving around my childhood neighborhood in NE Portland yesterday running errands, and I saw a beautiful blonde girl on an old-fashioned pink bike. She must have been a sophomore or junior in high school. I looked at her face, and I recalled all of the urgency that whirled around my head when I was in high school. I felt like there would never be another time in my life than the one I was in. Everything was ultimately important, and so many things were going on around me that I couldn't focus on anything.

I don't feel that way anymore, which is good. I have a greater understanding of time and how it inevitably changes everything. I have learned to push the social forces around me out of my life for an evening so that I can get my work done.

And although I much prefer the mindset of my senior-in-college self, I couldn't help but feel nostalgic and a little sad that adolescence is behind me.

I wondered if I got everything out of my teen year that I wanted to, and recalled going to rehab as a junior in high school. Although my life took some unfortunate turns, I did all the things that teenagers do. I got a piercing, I tried drugs, I had sex, I got bad grades, and I pulled a ton of stupid stunts. And despite the fact that I took all of these typical teen experiences a bit too far, I am glad that I got the chance to experience things. Fortunately and miraculously, my life has turned around.

So here I am-in this new time of my life, which I understand will pass more quickly than I want it to. But I am looking forward to the times to come. Although the job market is hell, I am enjoying doing everything I can to prepare for that market. And fortunately, I am planning on enjoying a wonderful, happy, long marriage with my best friend.

And that will all come soon enough.