The End

It is 11:04. May 5th, 2009. A Tuesday.

I just uploaded my last assignment for Political Science. I turned in my last assignment for Social Work at 3:30 this afternoon.

I am done.

Finished at Bluegrass Community and Technical College.

It has been seven semesters. Sixty-eight credit hours.

I contemplated leaving slowly today.

But once I waved to the old janitor and the security guard and met up with Liza in the lobby and said bye to Melissa in the Dental Hygiene Clinic...

I was done. Ready to say goodbye.

So I walked out of the Oswald Building. Down the steps. Out into the parking lot.

And I didn't look back.

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I just submitted my final assignment.

And I am doing a little reminiscing.

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I remember the day I drove into the K Lot for the first time. Lost in a sea of cars and L.L. Bean backpacks, I made my way onto BCTC's relatively small campus. Feeling small. And confused. And overwhelmed.

Then I met Mr. Hinkle.

I would meet a few more people that semester - people that would have a part, to this day, in changing my life. I would make A's. End a relationship. Turn 18.

I moved out of my parents' house that summer.

That fall I met Kip. And Ms. Humble. I met Dwaine and Brittany. I would move again. And learn what it meant to have hope in my Father. I would meet Matt and Derek and Brian.

My second spring semester I met Mrs. Johnston. And Joye. I turned 19 and my parents separated.

Summer of 2007 I ran away to Colorado.

Fall of 2007, Kat dragged me out of bed one Sunday morning to go eat Donatos pizza.

What would happen that Sunday afternoon, would be one of the most significant changes in my entire life.

I would meet Caleb. The passionate, bearded guy. He would be the head of our family. He would rock me to sleep through the next semester.

When my parents divorced. When I moved to yet another new apartment. When I tackled five more classes and made five more A's. When I turned twenty. When I learned how to take photographs... and about fair trade, organic coffee.

A family, stronger than any I'd ever known, was then born out of community.

More change....

A 'B' in Anatomy and Physiology.

Redeclaring majors.

I spent this last spring semester with an online political science class and an on-campus Social Work class.

And the first day of my last semester, I found myself in the same classroom where I had met Mr. Hinkle.

I am a new person.

With a new outlook on life.

A new confidence.

New knowledge.

Hopefully... more wisdom.

Certainly, more experience.

I sat down at the desk and the first day of class, back in January, it would be confirmed through the words of a professor.... I had finally made the right choice.

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It is over now.

What I just told you... probably is meaningless.

That was the skeleton. I left out the who's and the why's and the parts that really matter.

Of fastings and dance parties and broken alternators and unrequited love and saying goodbye to people I would never see again. Of figuring out who I am. And who I am not. Vegetarian summers. Advocacy and double cheeseburgers. Art out of coffee cans. Falling in love with Jesus. The important stuff.

This season of my life is over.

I could do a dance, just thinking about it.

Because I can see how I've changed.

And if I learned nothing else... I learned about myself on that little campus.

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Now, I am staring into the sleepy eyes of a long summer.

A 21st birthday.

New friends, waiting to be made.

Goodbyes to be said.

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Now, on a Tuesday night in early May, something ended.

Only so something else could begin.