Yesterday, four of my best friends graduated college, and I'm conflicted about it. On one side, I'm so incredibly proud of all of them. Allison and Paige completed an Honors Thesis apiece, which included hours of research, looking at ancient seeds under a telescope, and gluing centuries-old ceramics back together. Emily completed an internship that greatly improved a section of the university's library. Alyssa put an incredible amount of work into completing her degree, and already is the best at what she plans to do. It's been a long year of unrealistic assignment expectations and horrible professors, and I know we're all glad to finally have it over with.
Still, I'm just so sad they're leaving. We all met and lived studying abroad last year and they're a major piece of why going to London was probably the best decision I've made. Having only known them for a year and a half, they are just as, maybe closer to me than other friends I've known for years. The prospect of going back to school next fall without them is very sad for me. It's hard to think that I'll never grab lunch with Emily after my Legal History class every Tuesday and Thursday, that I won't laugh at Allison and Paige's disgusted faces when Alyssa talks about infants.
It seems that my life for the past few years has been full of endings. I first left Minnesota, which I've written about before and which was extremely difficult for me. Then my time in London ended, obviously, and I thought that my time there would be the happiest I would be for a while. But this past year spent with the friends I met there was full of incredible joy with the best people I know. And now that is completed as well, which just sucks. People always tell you know that it is so much easier today to keep in touch with friends post-graduation because of social media and technology, and that's true, but not to the extent students are lead to believe. Out of my friends from high school, who I thought I would never stop talking to, I even somewhat regularly speak to just one. And that's only because we're both active on Twitter and it's easy for us to just post snide responses to each other. (That's just kind of how our relationship is- once in high school a friend in German class told us she liked to just sit back and watch us bicker back and forth because it was hilarious. It's true, though. We're both incredibly witty. Though me a little more so.) I'm terrified that will happen again with this group.
It doesn't help that my friends are very talented and brilliant, so they are leaving for fantastic opportunities abroad. One is interning with some important international law place (that's the official name) in the Hague, another is going on an archaeological dig in Germany, and another is going to grad school in London (don't be too impressed- it's for library studies which is honestly barely even a real thing). And I'm so proud of all of them, but for those who are not aware, Europe is quite a distance away, and does not lend itself to easy visits.
It must be said though that despite how monumentally sucky each ending was, they all led to the next awesome thing. I really hate that saying about closed doors and open windows, so I refuse to admit it relevancy to this. I can only hope that the crappiness I feel now will be compensated by the next great thing later.
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