Yesterday was a day that seemed so far away four years ago.  It seemed like a destination, but I had a journey to get through before getting there, and all through high school, the journey was what I was so excited for.  The destination-less important.

Yesterday I graduated from West Chester University with a Bachelor of Science in Nutrition and Dietetics!

During high school, I was so, so, so unbelievably excited for college.  I applied to 9 (or 10?) schools in total, and ended up choosing West Chester because I had fun when I was there with my friends and because they offered me a scholarship.  Honestly. it didn’t really matter where I went, I just wanted to GO.  I was worried that West Chester was too close to home (about an hour and fifteen) and that my parents would show up at my door too often.  HA!  Yeah, right.  By the time junior year rolled around, I found myself eager to see my parents as often as possible.

So West Chester ended up being the perfect distance.  Freshman year, I was in love with school.  I never wanted to leave and my parents needed to break my grasp during breaks.  I loved having a flexible schedule, I loved making new friends and being with them all. the. time.  I loved being around young people, the parties, interesting classes, and choosing where, when, and how I do things.  And I made my very first friend at 7-11 on the first night of school.  Shannon is still my best friend and always will be!

From the very first few nights of college:

To graduation:

West Chester quickly became my home and I got involved right off the bat.  I joined, like, 15 clubs freshman year.  #Overachiever.  But then I didn’t go to any meetings except for Hillel (Jewish Student Union) and SDA (Student Dietetic Association).  Freshman year I began working for ARAMARK in the dining hall at school as one of the nutrition interns.  I was eager to make a difference in campus dining, and I like to think I made a small difference during my time there. 🙂

By Junior year, I was Prez of Hillel (but not involved with SDA).  And during senior year, I became a biology 100 tutor.

Sophomore year, I lived with my best friends,, Shannon, Claire, and Daria, and then junior and senior year, I worked as an RA and lived in the dorms. Junior year, I made more best friends that made being an RA so much fun.  We clicked right away.  

And this past year, I spent as much time with all of them as possible.  I was afraid that living in the dorms would make it extremely difficult to see them, but Wing Wednesdays and going out on the weekends was no problem.  And besides the late night rounds, being an RA was actually fun since my floor (and floor partner- HEY LEVI) this year was great.

I will admit, there were (many) times that I was excited for college to be over, to start something new and be in a new place.  A lot of that had to do with being burnt out with school and work, I think.  But as the year was rapidly coming to a close, I really found myself wishing that time would slow down.  I guess I realized that that was it.  My undergraduate college experience was about to end, and in the last couple of weeks, I found myself saying, “Wow, only in college do they blast music in the residential quad, give out free food and have moon bounces for adults”.  Or “this is the only time in my life when going to class, having a snack, taking a nap, seeing friends, going out, doing homework, staying up late, and doing dumb things is socially acceptable…unless you’re in preschool”.  And everything felt so very final…my last time taking this walk, my last time being in this room, my last time going to this library.  I also felt incredibly aware that this might be the LAST time I will see some (or most) of these people that have been a part of my life for four years.  They were never more than acquaintances, but they were there, nonetheless.  And to think that I may never, ever see them again shoots chills down my spine.  Speaking of chills, handing in my last final, walking out of my last undergraduate class, and saying goodbye to my professors and the girls that sat next to me in my classes made the hair stand up on the back of my neck.  Who knows when I will see any of them again?  After my last final on Friday, I walked back to North campus and just thought about everything that just happened and everything that was to come.  It was the first walk in 30 weeks that I didn’t call my dad or Russ to talk.  I just walked.

And Friday afternoon, as I packed everything up and watched the campus empty out, it felt very surreal that Friday was my last day at West Chester.  On Friday night, I came back to my dorm to a dark building.  It made my stomach turn to look down my hall and realize that every one of those rooms was empty, and they no longer belonged to the people that I knew during the year.  Despite my wishes to get out of the dorm, it was sad to see it so empty.  I was very happy that Russ was with me.  I think I would have been a hot mess had I been alone.

Being in college and being at West Chester was the greatest thing that ever happened to me.  I learned to be independent, I made some of the greatest friends I think I’ll ever have, and started dating Russ. I got involved, learned a lot, earned a degree, and changed for the better.  Right now I still feel like I’m going back to school at the end of the summer, but my completely unpacked bags say otherwise (I haven’t unpacked my stuff in 4 years).  I know that the end of college doesn’t mean the end of having fun, or the end of seeing my friends, but of course, it means things will change.   I’m so, so, so thankful for the friends that I made and the people that I met at West Chester, so THANK YOU to all of you!  They made my experience everything that it was and ‘m excited to see what the next year has in store, as well as the years to come!

Stay tuned for a post about graduation and my graduation dinner 🙂