It was my last semester. A quiet one. Kind of a lonely one, too. The money ended somewhat abruptly, and with little notice, in the middle of last fall. It was fortunate that I really only needed one more course to graduate, so this past spring, I only had the one.
Two days a week. One course. I never lived on campus (having started this endeavor with a wife, that would have been awkward), so the most social interaction I had with my friends on campus was in class and, of course, the various times we gathered to study.
I got a part time job to cover the cost of that last course, and quickly found myself disliking the entire situation. There were my final moments in college? Barely seeing any of the classmates and faculty that have become friends? Spending my evenings in a quiet, depressing button-down under a fluorescent light?
I spent more time alone this spring than I had any other semester since I got here. I attended my graduation ceremony yesterday. It was a satisfying experience that, perhaps, may have been more so had it been attended by more than just those who were graduating.
I didn't start college right out of high school. I spent years in dead end employment, feeling slowly crushed by the supposed reality that I could never do better than that. When I started college, I was overwhelmed. I had no idea what I was doing.
I'm not the same person I was when I started this.
