Family. Is. Forever.

Come along and walk with me. I'll take you through a typical day of what has been my life for the last two years...

We'll start in the valley by saying hello to Barb on our way to class. We can make the hike up 76 stairs in the brisk morning air and wave at my freshman who were dumb enough to have taken 7:45 classes. Next we order coffee in Tu Mercado from Mandy, the girl who looks out of place on a campus full of tall, thin, and beautiful blondes. Our first class is in Loma and we chat with Dr. Reifer in the elevator and say hi to the engineering majors... all 15 of them who we know by name. After class we take a stroll across the lawn to Aromas, sit down, and within fifteen minutes talk, laugh, or cry with at least 4 "close" friends. We make our way over to Camino/Founders and smell 1952. Let's head to La Paloma for lunch and sit down with our best friends, because it's inevitable they will be there at any given moment during any given afternoon. Hiking back towards the UC, we hug, high five, and wave to fellow classmates, residents, friends, professors, coworkers, and supervisors. When we stop to use the restroom in Maher we run into Sophie Halvin our French teacher from Freshman year who smiles at us and says, "Bonjour! Ces-va?" We'll spend anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours in the CASA office with the funniest people we know, telling awkward stories, having dance offs, and occasionally doing work. Dinner at the SLP will prove to be quite hectic and we will know no less than 15 people. If we make it back down to the valley before 7 our day is pretty much over, but after 7 we will spend at least an hour in Mission Crossroads complaining about residents, watching youtube videos, and eating all of Barb's candy. The night ends with amazing conversations with our closest friends who we saw at least once today, then we go to sleep and wake up and do it all over again.

Now...

This routine is my life. My perfectly contented life. Occasionally I opt for the back alley to climb up instead of the stairs, or have class in the IPJ and not Loma Hall. Sometimes I'll stop in Founders Chapel and say a prayer or go for a walk behind Soles to clear my head. When it is warm outside I might sit on the lawn and laugh with my favorite people or take cover in Copley Library when papers decide to consume my life. But for the most part I don't stray from this routine. I love this routine.

Why am I rehashing every moment of my day?

Because as of Thursday, May 20th this is no longer my routine, no longer my life. I wont hike up an obscene amount of stairs on my way to class, I wont go to aromas and not have to worry about finding people to sit with, or find my best friends in La Paloma. I wont lay on the lawn with with the greatest people I know and laugh until we cry, and I wont spend countless hours in CASA or waste my evenings in Crossroads.

My world is changing as I know it, and there's nothing I can do to stop it.

I've spent the last two years with this perfect community surrounding me, but my community is graduating, graduating tomorrow at 9 and 2. Everyone accept me. A month ago I would have broken down in tears just thinking about all of this, thinking about not spending every waking minute with these amazing people, not being able to make the short walk across campus to visit someone's home or have sleep-overs in Manchester. I will spend my Senior year more or less alone next year, without the people who I have grown to love so much. I will walk around aimlessly and have no one to share random fits of excitement with, but...

But last night in the midst of celebration I was reminded that these people who I have spent the last two years with are my family, and family is forever. Although there will not be 17 hour days in the library suffering from delirium, or contemplating for 20 minutes about whether or not to skip Research Methods, we will always be a family, because family is forever. I can always pick up the phone to ask imperative questions like how bees mate, or whether or not we are going to Casa Guad for happy hour before we make our way to Sandbar, and I can always drive to Point Loma when I need a shoulder to cry on. My friends, my family, wont be as accessible, but they will always be.

I sit here not with worry or sadness for the moment when every single one of my friends walks across the stage, rather I sit here full of happiness for my happiness lies in the hearts of each one of this amazing people. We are a family. We are forever.

To Matty, Kara, Rob, Laila, Bovey, Jen, Matt, and Jeff. Happy Graduation. I love you all. :)