One year later

Exactly one year ago, I stood on the sidewalk in front of my on-campus house at Dickinson College, the chaos of a large block party swirling around me, thinking how life seemed to be in fast-forward. My 7 housemates and I, like all of our neighbors, were hosting our final swaray at Dickinson. Tomorrow was graduation- the day when the 530 people I entered college with 4 short years ago would be gently nudged out of the world of frat parties and keg stands and into a world just waiting to kick us around. As I stood on Louther Street, watching the Pennsylvania winds push the foreboding graduation day rain to the edge of Carlisle, I realized that I was going to miss much more that just the social life and freedom of college. I knew that even the things I hated about Carlisle, like rain 360 days a year, would become part of my treasure chest of fond memories. (I was right. The day I arrived back home in Phoenix, AZ it was 112 degrees.)
Graduation Day was a very wet day in Carlise: neither a dry eye nor a dry seat in the house. We graduates spent three rain-soaked hours appreciating our four years at Dickinson, looking forward to the future, and developing hypothermia. As the ceremony drew to a close, and the sun ironically made its first appearance of the day, I again found myself thinking that despite the lengthy, wet ceremony, time was still flying by too quickly for me to appreciate what was going on around me.

Why is it that the best times in life always go by too quickly? I believe it's the sign of a life well lived. Life moves by quickly to deliver you to the next exciting event. Over the last year I've experienced four months of travel, starting a new job, friends get married and having children, and to be completely honest, it's freaked me out. Only a year out of college and my friends are already having kids!? But wait, I'm an entire year out of college! Look at all of the things that have happened in just one year. I thought life would slow down a bit after I graduated... I was WRONG. My schedule is just as hectic, if not more hectic, than when I was in college. The stress level of a new job rivals that of finals week. And I'm still trying to pack eight days worth of life into a seven day week. But I have never once wished that life would slow down. Funny how some things never change.

The Dickinson class of 2009 will begin this journey tomorrow as they descend the steps of Old West, in what is predicted to be dryer weather than '08. I've spent a lot of time over the last week being envious of the '09 seniors at Dickinson as they make their way through the haze of Senior Week and graduation. For me, there will always be a time in life that is worth returning to. However, I figure that the present and the future, if lived at full speed, might just end up rivaling the best times of the past.