Feeling Nostalgic

A good friend of mine will be addressing the University of Arizona graduating class of 2009 on Saturday morning. While I probably will not be speaking to anyone more than my close friends and family that day, thinking about what he might say has gotten me thinking about what I might say if I were to have time at a podium in the next few days. Here are some of those thoughts.

First, I have realized that I am extremely blessed to have this opportunity to live in this safe little learning bubble for the last four years. For me, college has been another essential phase of development. My college life has been less experiential, despite popular belief of what college is, and more like another four years where I was able to learn more , sharpen more skills, and fine tune habits and traits that I will need in the future.

Second: THE FUTURE. It feels like only yesterday that the future was on the other side of this great journey on which I would meet new friends and make memories I would remember forever. Today I am looking "the future" right in the face. It has arrived, and the journey on which I was supposed to be seems so much shorter on this end. While I am very excited to walk across that stage tomorrow, I can't help but wonder if I made all the memories I had hoped I would as a freshman entering this place. Looking back, I can remember all sorts of things; class projects, random roommates, clubs, chosen roommates, and even some nights that I should not have remembered, but on which I look back fondly now, despite certain outside influences. But have I experienced all that I was supposed to during the last four years? That questions might have to remain for a while, until I can truly examine all of this.

Lastly, in thinking about what I would say to a group of peers this weekend, I keep coming back to the importance that 'my people' have been to my college experience. And by "important" I mean absolutely, undeniably essential to my survival, satisfaction, and to my very being. Tonight was the season finale of Grey's Anatomy, and without giving too much away about the episode, I do want to share one theme from the show; telling the people you love that you love them, before its too late, because you never know when you won't be able to anymore. I used to think that idea required someone dying, but it can mean anything: tell them before your memory turns on you, tell them before they go to Iraq, tell them before they move across the country and are no longer your roommates.

So when I wake up in the morning, I'll be on my way to that big bad walk across the stage which leads to a new step, an indefinite step, but a step none-the-less, and the only way to figure that step out is to take it, then put the other foot in front, and take another. In this particular situation, I can only know the process, not the result. But I have faith in the Lord that I'll find that place for which I was meant, and when I get there I'll fulfill that role like you won't belive.