When life leaves you behind
There is always a special feeling in the air on campus during the first week of school- a mix of anticipation and nervousness, fear and excitement. The upperclassmen are being reunited with friends that they have not seen for months, while the freshmen are embarking on the adventure of a lifetime.
For me, this year is very bittersweet. In many ways, I feel as though I am being left behind as my friends approach graduation and move on to their “big kid” lives.
First, while I am in my senior year, I will unfortunately be a senior for three semesters due to my inability to choose a major and stick with it. (I believe that I have finally made a decision this week.) I have many friends who will be graduating on time, and while I am happy for them, I cannot help but feel slightly inferior and like they are moving on to bigger and better things without me.
But, I also feel left behind because my very best friends chose to move off campus this year. While students outside of a certain radius of Marshall are only required to live on campus for their freshman and sophomore years, I have chosen to remain on campus again this year. I came to this decision for many reasons, including financial and safety reasons, as well as for convenience. Because of our different decisions, I will not see my friends nearly as often as I did before , and I am finding myself doing so many more things on my own.
Being left behind, however, is not always such a bad thing. In fact, it can be very good for us, and it may even force us to do things we would not otherwise do. For example, freshman year the thought of eating in the cafeteria alone would have caused me to have a heart attack, but I have done this every day this week.
There is more to the story however, and sometimes we are not left behind we are the ones leaving others.
My friends made their decision to move off campus at the end of last semester, so they would have someplace to live all summer here in Huntington. I was not included in the process because my summer plans were already set in stone. See, I attended The Fund for American Studies’ Institute on Political Journalism where I spent my entire summer in Washington, D.C. interning at a highly regarded radio station, while taking classes and participating in many other activities throughout the city.
While I was out touring the big city and having a blast in a dream world, my friends were here going to work. Now, don’t get me wrong, my best friends were more than thrilled for the experience that I was having, but I was the one that was miles ahead.
All of this reflecting has led me to realize that our friends are often going to be in different places in their lives than we are.
I am still on the college track. Everything that I am working towards is furthering my education and experiences. I am not ready to settle down, or grow up, whichever you want to call it. But, for my best friends, that is what they craved.
Yet, the awesome thing about college, and life at Marshall, is that despite our very different paths, we are still great friends. I may not see them as much as I used to, but I may meet up with them for dinner at the student center, where I can use my meal plan. Or, better yet, we can all get our free tickets to next week’s home football game and cheer on the Herd.
As the semester goes on, I am sure that I will make some new friends that do live on campus, but I am equally as sure that I will not lose contact with my old friends either.