Remembering the last 4 years like yesterday

When I was in high school, we had a “homeroom” period. It was literally 15 minutes of morning introductions before the day got started. Toward the end of my senior year, I remember my homeroom teacher said to the class, “If you think high school went by fast, college will go by that much faster.”

He was right.

I remember four years ago when I was moving my essentials into Eigenmann Hall. I remember meeting my dormmates and wondering if I’d get along with my roommate. I remember these things like they were yesterday. But now I’m sitting at my desk on a Tuesday afternoon, remembering Monday as yesterday just as well as I remember freshman year as yesterday.

When did time start moving so fast?

On Aug. 6, I got up in the morning – fighting a viral infection – and walked to the tennis courts on Woodlawn Avenue. At that moment, I could barely hold my tennis racket up, and I thought it was a possibility I would not pass the tennis final. That’s all I needed to get my diploma – a one-credit HPER class.

I made it through the final (I passed, too), and I walked away realizing that I would never take another class as an undergraduate student. Where did these last four years go?

Freshman year was a blur to me because, as I’m sure you know, so many things happen at once. I was taking classes, deciding my major, meeting new people, trying not to gain the freshman 15 and trying to figure out my extracurricular activities.

Most of my friends make fun of me because I can’t remember much about my sophomore year. Nothing happened to me. It wasn’t fun or interesting. At the very end of my sophomore year, I started working at the Indiana Daily Student – which has given me more than a resume.

I met my mother(s) away from home at the IDS. I met my best friend at the IDS. I learned how to be more understanding by understanding others. I have met some of the most interesting people I have ever known by being a part of this student organization.

Junior year was a bridge to me. It connected my first two years to my last year, and senior year wrapped up everything I had done the previous years.

As my final day as editor-in-chief of the Indiana Daily Student winds down, and my last day at IU approaches, I just wanted to say thank you to Bloomington Police Department Sgt. Jeff Canada, former dean of students Dick McKaig, IU spokesman Larry MacIntyre, assistant dean of students Pam Freeman and IU-Bloomington Chancellor Ken Gros Louis – who all made my job easier.

I wanted to say thank you to the IU employees I’ve gotten to know (especially Mary Frohliger – you have made every visit to the Union’s Market Place enjoyable for me). I wanted to say thank you to my heterosexual life partner(s), without whom I would have never made it through the summer.

And thank you, IU, for the last four years. I hope you treat the incoming freshmen as well as you treated me.