Today saw the end of my undergraduate career. Ironically, my first under-graduate class was German and my last under-graduate class was German. Things have come full circle, and here we are at the end of many things.
Several people have asked me whether I feel excited to graduate at week's end. In truth, I am not. Yet I feel it is time to move on. Certain places and experiences seem to yield a degree of growth to a person. Like a training phase in a running program, these places and experiences cause a person to grow and adapt to new circumstances, demands, and stimuli. A time comes, however, when further growth requires a new place, and a new stimulus. I think that time is near.
It is sad in a way. I've grown comfortable to the setting of Ursinus life, with the daily rhythms, people, and demands of this world within a world. The library is absolutely wonderful, and the many hours spent there luxuriating in good books will be missed but well remembered. The old practice room with the terrible thermostat, where many a lonely night was spent bassooning, will sta with me for a while. The campus itself, if you've never seen it, is pleasant enough for the eye, and has a wholesome feel to it as you walk from place to place. It's likely I've walked over a thousand miles around this campus, yet it seems to welcome my feet everytime I come back. Certain trees are like old friends, a gentle wind extending out their branches as if in greeting as I pass. The surrounding country that has played host to my feet and bicycle will remain long within me, and the wide-open sky from atop the hills near Graterford are a sight I shall not soon forget.
In short, Ursinus has become my second home, and like my first home I miss it often when I am absent for a long time. So many things to be thankful for here, and it will take a lifetime, perhaps, to realize them all. The next few days will no doubt be interesting.
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