It's official

I am officially a UCSD alumna.

Well, not yet. Technically, I still have two more classes to complete, but I'll be taking them over the summer, and we all know that summer school doesn't really count.

Okay, so it's going to be boring as hell. At least I'll then be officially-and-this-time-it's-for-real done.

Graduation was a stinky, sweaty affair; the sun was bright and directly overhead, the graduation attire was silly and heat-conductive, the airhorns were ridiculously loud, and "Pomp and Circumstance" gets annoying after ten minutes. I didn't trip on either of my two trips to the stage, which was a blessing, since my heels kept digging into the grass - I was basically walking on my toes throughout the ceremony.

The walk produced a feeling of accomplishment and closure, but now I'm right back at Sixth College, working for the Orientation program. It's really as though I've never left. I get the feeling that true closure will come when I actually get off the campus, though I'm rather loathe to leave this place. I do love this college - it's become my second home - and the memories I'll be taking with me, rife with drama, laughs, tears, and love, will last me the rest of my lifetime, but leaving is still a difficult thing to do.

It helps that most of the people I know have already left, or are leaving soon. I have made a lot of friends with some underclassmen, though, and I'm greatly enjoying my job. I'll be sad when it's over, I know.

Four years. How is it already over? How do I feel as though I haven't aged a line, yet at the same time feel wise beyond my years?

And how do I sum up four years of growth, new experiences, heartaches, and joys in one little blog entry? Impossible. But if I were to try, I'd say that it was four years of discovery - discovering who I am and what I'm made of, discovering who my true friends are as well as the ones willing to let me fall by the wayside on their way to other things. Discovering love, and all the ups and downs (and it was mostly downs) that come along for the ride.

It was a journey of discovery. That's the best way to put it, I suppose. An end of an era, you might say.