I handed in the last final assignment of my undergraduate career on Tuesday afternoon, and since then, I have been wanting to put some of my feelings about graduation next week into words and out on paper. I have a bad case of the feels. So many feels. All the feels. Here they come.
College has made me realize how important it is to be in love with what you come home to. I adore my family, but I didn't have any choice about living with them. In college, I got to choose whom I lived with, and was lucky enough to find people I love coming home to again. Two years ago, I needed to sub-lease since I was studying abroad, and signed on last minute with an acquaintance and her four friends I'd met once. I don't think a random roommate situation has ever worked out so beautifully. Again, I adore my mom and three sisters but I thought I had sworn off living with that much estrogen under one roof again. I am glad I didn't. While my roommates are successful people, they are more importantly conscientious individuals who care, deeply care about people, the future, and the environment and demonstrate that through their choices and how they spend their time. Actively caring, not just talking about caring, is sometimes harder to find in college students. It is what defines my roommates and has had a great influence on me. On top of all that, they are outdoorsy and spontaneous. We have the best time together- cooking, gardening, biking, hiking, camping, dancing, road tripping, downtowning, or even just sitting, which we do a lot of in various favorite locations. They have made my heart so full the past two years and I am proud of who they are and the (green engineer, environmental policymaker, business tycoon, nurse, social worker) women they are becoming.
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| Accidental matching and laser eyes |
I was out of the country for quite a bit of 2012, and while I have no complaints about my education at Virginia Tech, I learned far more from the people and experiences I had studying abroad than I could have learned in a classroom here. The Virginia Tech professors who led both programs have taken me under their wing. At a school as big as Tech, I am a lucky one to have ten parental figures here that will invite me over for a home cooked meal, lend me books, mock interview me, deliver Kathryn-I-believe-in-you-but-please-get-your-life-together motivational talks, and mean it when they ask how I am doing. Intelligent adults are great. They have a wealth of wisdom and encouragement and humor and credibility to share. Their impact reminds me why I want to be a teacher. Since I showered, slept, got sick, and lived to the point of having no personal space or limitations with the students I studied abroad with, I have similar mushy-gushy sentiments about them as I do my roommates. I am thankful we all came back to the same campus afterwards. Sharing those experiences brings people together in a way nothing else does, and those friends understand me in a way no one else does.
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| Dominican Republic Spring Program |
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| C21S Nomads |
I am a sister of Chi Delta Alpha, Virginia Tech's only all female service sorority. I feel like most of my close circle of friends and family don't know I am even associated with it because, well, it’s a sorority. However, the service opportunities it connected me with are what made Blacksburg my home, not just a place where I go to school. Making community service part of my weekly routine forced me to burst the limestone bubble of Virginia Tech and realize that rural southwest Virginia is a place where need is very real. Working in local schools with teachers who have kids that don't get meals over the weekends, helping move in new residents at the Women's Resource Center, playing on a Special Olympics Basketball team, and painting nails of sweet ladies at the local nursing home (to name a few) have allowed me to build long lasting relationships with people in the area that are ages other than 18-22. And my kids. My favorite service project is through Coalition for Refugee Resettlement, and I tutor a family with five kids from Tanzania. I see them every week and they mean the world to me. I am tearing up as I write this, so I am going to stop. Point is, they are important and they are special and they deserve opportunities. The people behind the community organizations I've worked with are forces of good to be reckoned with, and so are the sisters of XDA. It sounds odd, but we have almost an aggressive attitude towards service- girls get competitive about filling volunteer slots for projects and we all share this relentless, do whatever it takes mentality towards community outreach. This no excuses mentality is the only one that will create results for marginalized people and solve problems. It is a mindset that has been transforming and is something I will take into the classroom every day with Teach for America- a mentality of responsibility that says I can, I will, and I must do my part to make positive change in my community. This inexplicable feeling of unity students feel at Tech could be attributed to the fact that we have an expensive sports program to rally behind, that the beauty of Appalachia and our campus is contagious, or that we are a pretty homogeneous bunch so of course it is easy to get along. But without any incentive, Chi Delta Alpha sends out 60+ girls each week to embody our school's motto, That I May Serve. And for me personally, that is what makes Blacksburg a community, not just a college town, that is difficult to leave.
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| XDA Spring 2013 |
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| My Wednesdays |
The biggest thank you of all goes to my parents, who have supported these three years both emotionally and financially. College has made me appreciate them more. I am grateful for their constant support and occasional tough love. If I ever have kids, I want to be able to give them the same opportunities they gave me. And they treat me like an adult who is also their daughter, which is the coolest. It makes me realize I would want to be friends with them even if we weren’t related at all. And an ambiguous thanks to my sisters because I just love them so much. And another thanks to my four best friends from high school, who maintained best friend status long distance with flying colors.
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| Winter Break Beach Week |
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| Fam Jam |
Well, if anyone even read all the way to this point, that is all the feels I have. I will miss everything about this place except the interminable winters. Turns out, I only enjoy living among jaw droppingly beautiful mountains in the spring, summer, and first half of fall, and that is (maybe) only 6 months out of the year, with winter being the other half. Time for my big move to- oh yes, Jacksonville, Florida- the destination city of America, where I hope to never see a single flake of snow or keep hand warmers in yes, a parka. More on that terrifying/exciting transition next time.
LOVE, kb
