It was like someone hit the respawn button on me. I knew all the surroundings, but had to start from scratch.
Being a super senior, a majority of your friends go back home, start working adult jobs or even move halfway across the country. (Missing you out there in Chicago, Cait). But you’re still there, finishing up the last classes of your degree and feeling like a stranger as the younger crowd has their day in the shade.
I transferred to New Paltz two years ago after spending my first two years of school at community college back home in Westchester.
I’ve lived in the same house since I was 3 years old. I went to the same school from Pre-K through eighth grade, one high school and commuted to college before moving an hour and a half up north.
Change was not in my fabric.
But then you start to like change. You like the new people you meet, the fresh setting, a plethora of opportunities. Optimism. It’s the different kind of change that hits you like a ton of bricks. The type of change where you walk past places you’ve spent the best nights of your life with friends that aren’t around anymore and you feel like a ghost. The kind of change that keeps you up at night wondering how time passed you by so quickly.
I started off my ninth semester bitter. I missed my friends, I wanted to get my degree, move back home and get on with my life.
But then the first kind of change I talked about started to kick in. I got reacclimated to everything, started my classes and ran into some people that made me feel less lonely.
What’s important to remember is that a situation is neither good or bad, it is what you choose it to be.
If nothing else, it was an opportunity for me to have one more semester of not having to worry about the rigors of being an adult and just enjoy learning, meeting new people and listening to crappy bands at the bar but being completely content with it.
A lot of great people have come into my life this semester and I’m thankful for the bonds I’ve strengthened (shoutouts to Zach, Kelly, Jeff and John).
So even when life hits the reset button on you, you have a better understanding of what the situation at hand is and in the long run, you’ll be better off because of it.