On This Day In My History

December 16th, 2006: Rachel's memorial service, a girl that changed my life.

December 16th, 2010: Focus Leadership graduation, a semester that changed my life.

December 16th, 2011: .................

Finals Week Is Not For The Weak | An Observation

As I stepped on campus today, there was a change in the air. My first clue that something was different was that there were no parking spots in my usual lot, everyone was in class today. As I walked to my class, there was a quiet, it was the middle of the day, yet you could hear a pin drop. Students walked in ones and twos, if they dared to talk their conversations never surpassed an utter. The students walking alone seemed to carry on a conversation with themselves, no doubt repeating to themselves again and again the facts they had been learning all semester, and had spent hours deep into the night before cramming into their already over full minds. No one made eye contact as we passed one another. Like sleepwalkers we passed almost unaware. We passed the need for sleep weeks ago, and now we just operate on pure momentum, costing to the end of this last, final week.

And yet, in the midst of the clouds of information we have shrouded ourselves in, there is something else in the air, something that is calling just beyond the fortress of finals. Whispering, beckoning “You're almost here. Almost here. So, close…” can you hear it? Beyond the brick wall of scantrons, a promise, of pillows, and sleep, of mornings with no alarm, with nary an assignment due, and no text books in sight. Today the sun shown, a taste of the promised freedom. Though it is the middle of winter, the day was warm, carrying with it the scent of spring, of change, of renewed life. The old is nearly done, and the new is yet a month away. Only a few more days, a few short exams, then we will arrive, we will find a refuge, and we will be done.

Break…it’s so, very, close…I think we’re gonna make it!