Transitions

We've been graduated for almost a week and it still seems surreal to me. I keep going back to the pictures from that day, thinking maybe the 3 billionth time I look at them, it'll finally sink in. 

It's done. It happened. We graduated!

I always thought I was bad with change, but I've been learning that, really, it's all about transitions. My mom tells me that, in general, change isn't too bad; it can actually be easy. When you're immersed in a change, you get involved in other things, you're in a new phase of your life, and, usually, you're happy to have moved on. Change isn't hard, but transitioning from one phase of life to another, now THAT'S tricky. Transitioning is full of uncertainty, loose ends, missing, and being missed. This is where we are right now, friends. We're in transition.

My favorite picture from the day. Candid and so sweet. 

Graduation certainly ushers in a time of transition, but it marks much more than that. Graduating from college, particularly a small and mighty school like Lawrence, is the culmination of a lot of hard work and achievement. I spent four years at Lawrence. That means I was there for 12 terms, survived 12 tenth weeks, took about 30 midterms, wrote 82 papers (I actually counted), and designed and conducted a research study. I took the LSAT, applied to law schools, and was accepted to several of them. I achieved much. We all did. There was a lot to celebrate at graduation. 

But, if I'm being honest, I have not yet experienced that feeling of pride. When I am congratulated, I smile politely, I agree that much was accomplished, and I try to move on. Because truthfully, what I feel most strongly now that I've graduated from Lawrence is that I have the best, dearest friends I could have ever ask for. And, believe me, I asked. Every prayer I prayed during my lonely freshman days has been answered 100 fold in you. My Lawrence community is my family, my home, and transitioning away from that is painful. It should be. But I know that the future I have, at Ohio State, in Columbus, with Ebiji, is a change that I will (someday, eventually) be happy to embrace.

Lawrentians, I love you all. See you next week! 

(One week from today! Kels, can you STAND it?!)