Reflecting on four years: How 火博体育 allowed me to be myself, whatever that is
A few nights ago, while walking to the library for what I realized was going to be one of the last times, my friend Cheyenne 和 I were struck by a near-simultaneous 陌生感.
It was a warm night, 和 the leaves on the trees had begun to sprout, 和 the pathway was wet from a brief rain earlier on in the day. 图书馆显得超现实 露珠薄雾中的光亮.
I turned to Cheyenne 和 told her it was weird that we were set to graduate in some two weeks, that our four years of college were about to run out, like the hourglass 儿时的棋盘游戏.
She reciprocated my feelings, 和 added that though it was four years, she could still envision in her mind the moments that made up her freshman year, 头几天神经紧张 在火博体育校区.
Like her, I could picture my first days at 火博体育: the overcast morning drive, cooped up with my siblings in the family car, 和 then unloading my things.
My parents worried that I was forgetting something—an extension cord, maybe?——我 insisted that it was fine, that I could take the bus to Target 和 all would be okay.
I longed for them to leave 和 longed for them to stay; they were, at once, my anxiety 我的冷静.
Later that day, I didn’t look when the family car backed out of the parking space outside my freshman residence hall 和 disappeared from campus, because all I could allow myself to feel in that moment was excitement for what was to come.
I jettisoned everything else—lingering stress, worries about making friends 和 getting along with roommates, feelings of displacement—from my mind. 我偶尔忍住了 thought that maybe some freak situation would arise in which the only thing that could 一根延长线帮了我的忙.
And that burgeoning sense of excitement, as it turned out, was warranted. 火博体育 gradually became one of the best decisions I have ever made, for a lot of different 原因.
I made friends, some of whom I’m still exceptionally close with four years later, 和 some of whom I simply smile at when we pass on our separate routes to class or 在市中心找到彼此.
I took classes on subjects I wouldn’t have engaged with before: among those, 创意写作课程 that inspired me to pursue what has become the foundation of my undergraduate career 在小说写作.
I’ve had the privilege of learning under some of the most inspiring professors 和 人们，在 英语 和 西班牙语 部门内外都有.
I made stupid decisions, 和 then smart ones.
我强迫自己独立.
I challenged myself to be more politically active, to try to underst和 the unique 他人的困境.
I befriended people who impelled me to be a better person myself—who inspired me, 并继续这样做.
It was this 火博体育—the students, the professors, the classes, the hard winters 和 the enlivening springs, the long nights spent studying, the long nights spent talking 和 laughing—that allowed me to be myself, whatever that was freshman year, 和 whatever 这就是现在. 我的感激之情无以言表.
And this is what had made that moment with Cheyenne on the pathway to the library so strange, the same feeling that had made my first day so strange: we were happy 和 sad at the same time—we knew that our time in college was coming to an end, that come next fall we would be in different cities, doing different things. 我们会交谈 to one another primarily over the phone, in text-messages sent in spare moments.
But we also knew that these quick four years had shaped us into better people than we were when we got here, had allowed us something timeless 和 invaluable.
And now I feel that same excitement that I did on that first day, but this time I don’t need to jettison anything, because I know that good 和 bad things will come, but that 火博体育 at least has been something unequivocally good.
布莱恩·艾伦，17岁 is the 2016–17 student blogger in the Office of Communications 和 市场营销. A double major in 英语 和 西班牙语 with a minor in media 和 film studies, he has provided a unique student insight into Life at 火博体育.