Last fall, as I drove from Williamsburg, Kentucky to Annapolis, Maryland for the last summer vacation of my college career, the last spring road trip home, it struck me that these were Last Things, and that the entire previous semester had been a Last Thing, and almost everything that I did in Williamsburg from then on out would also be a Last Thing. Last check-in, last dorm room, last Welcome Week, last Homecoming, last Patriot games, last Williamsburg hiking trips, last finals week. Not gonna lie, I teared up a little thinking about this during that drive home. As I passed each of the half-dozen colleges I drive by on the interstate during that trip, I realized that I could have gone to any one of them and had a very different experience, but instead I went to Cumberlands, and experienced the things that I was now thinking about leaving behind.
Now, an entire summer later, August has come with a great continuation of Last Things. For the last time, I made that long drive back to UC with visions of an exciting new semester ahead. One last dorm room to decorate, one last class schedule to write out, one last RA staff to get to know and work with.
One last.
And I realized – this is the beginning of the end. And as much as I will feel grown, accomplished, and ready for the next step upon graduation, I know that I will also be sad to leave this place and these people and this time of my life behind. I have never been a huge fan of endings, and this one seems especially definite. So as this ending begins, I am looking back on the past three years and being thankful I am not quite at the end of it yet – not for another 125 days.
