End of Semesters

Theme: Best Memory

Others may share this sentiment, but it can be hard to choose just one "best" memory. In truth, I don't think I have one. Equally I feel like it's tough to choose the worst. Like Naoni said (I haven't read the revised version yet), a good memory is one associated with a sort of pure warmness. Idk I'm just saying all of this to tell you in a roundabout way that I don't want to claim these as my "best" memory, but they're definitely good ones.

So back to the task at hand. Memories. We've written about it before here, but the little moments are always the best. Some that particularly stick out to me are the ones that happen at the end of semester for me. That time right after finishing your last essay or handing in your last exam. A moment of goodbyes and packing and doing everything with a certain sense of freedom. I tend to feel guilty when I enjoy things while having things on my to do list. But after exams, even if I have things to do or an internship approaching, I always allow myself to savor the feeling of nothingness until I have to leave campus. I got the same feeling after finding out that we had to go home early this year. Even though I still had classes and work to tend to, I knew I had a certain period of time before all that would start back up online. And in the meantime I felt that feeling of nothingness (in a blissful way).

At the same time, other good memories that stick out to me are during exams. It's the fact of bonding during shared struggles. I spend time with friends for long periods of time that I sometimes don't get to during the semester. And in all actuality we spend long breaks goofing off more than studying or writing.

One time that I remember fondly was about a year ago in the infamous Gillett dining hall after hours. I was with Alexis and Aboni and we were just working on stuff for finals. I always feel bad talking/talking loud in study spaces because I know I myself get so irked when people do it to me when I'm trying to read. Nevertheless we weren't being the quietest but the maybe one other person in the hall was a good sport about it. Anyways, we just talked a lot and I thought it was so funny because Aboni started going on this spiel about holidays. I'd need to rehash it with her but I think the argument was that the only holiday that we should celebrate should be Halloween. I'm definitely missing some of the nuances to this type of nation-wide ruling, but hey, she talked like an hour straight about it. In these times, a strategy I came up with is to make a rule for 30 or so minutes of silence so we can actually do work. This time we made it interesting by saying whoever talks first has to pay the others a dollar. To my and Aboni's luck, Alexis' friends came in and she had to talk. In hindsight perhaps Alexis doesn't look back on the occasion so favorably...

Now that I'm thinking of Gillett though, I'm reminiscing about all the other late night conversations I've had there, especially with Claire and Kristiana. In all the difficulty of college, I've definitely had some of my best memories there.

TL;DR I miss my friend :')

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Some off-topic notes:

• After finishing classes I still felt like I needed a moment to collect myself so I was pretty absent from life outside of myself and my family. Now though I feel ready to take on things and establish routine for the next blank few months. Also it's a true rarity because as of yesterday, my whole family is in the house together again!

• I've been trying to do the things I seemingly never had time for. Some of that is editing video projects and one that I finished recently was vlog clips that Kristiana and I did over sophomore year :) I also made one about Paris so I can share that when I upload it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9DCI1cnHk0

• I mentioned in a comment, but we should all talk soon and discuss everything that's going on in the country. It's heavy but exciting stuff (like exciting in the possibility of change sort of way). nevertheless unacceptable and sad...

• Realizing that we've kept up this blog for over a year is so cool! I really do think it's something to be proud of. I'm actually so thankful for it because I figured out I do need some sort of threatening accountability in projects. No matter if it can difficult to be consistent, I'm always happy with the result. I also think I've better honed my writing voice :) Thank you guys for taking this journey with me and also sharing your individual journeys. I don't think any of us would have anticipated where the year would take us (for better and for worse)....

  • According to the tagged posts, there have been 5 demerits XP

Stay safe everyone!