Wish Me Luck As You Wave Me Goodbye

I am officially done with college. I took my last finals Wednesday and got my final grades yesterday. I officially graduate on Sunday, but it really isn't sinking in yet. Here I am sitting in my half packed up room with my goldfish and I just can't picture not coming back here next fall. Sure I'm glad to be done, I've got a job all lined up ( news flash: I got a job in Pittsburgh now, so I'll be at home at least through the summer!) and I'm so happy with my grades and I'm getting a car, everything's working out just the way I hoped. It's just not real yet.

I'm really going to miss Mercyhurst. Especially on days like it's been this week, warm, green, and blue skies all day with the lake shimmering off in the distance. I'm not going to miss trudging through the snow to get to class every day for six months, but watching the snow fall in giant heaps on the weekends while sipping hot chocolate are memories I will take with me. I'm going to miss taking walks through campus just because it's so pretty out and I want to see the flowers on the trees. I'm going to miss working crazy hours at the PAC, coming in at 8am and leaving at 1am without ever seeing the sun. I'll miss watching amazing shows from the wings and hanging out with snobby lighting directors, crazy musicians, and crazy flexible dancers. It'll be weird going to work at normal and steady hours after this job. I wonder if my skills as a lighting technician will be of use somewhere else?

I'm going to miss baja subs at the Laker and breadsticks at 10pm on a Friday night. I'm even going to miss listening to people get off the bus in front of my house every night at 2:30 am and stumble home. I'm going to miss falling asleep to Sex and the City every night with my roommate Jenna and watching movies with all the roommates on a Tuesday rather than write that paper. I'm going to miss discussing the context of Machiavelli's writing and why understanding the history of a nation's political institutions is important for it's future with other people as interested as I am. I'm going to miss dinner at 5 with the boys almost every night for the past 4 years; my break from stress and work and crazy drama. I'm going to miss listening sports conversation that I barely understand and being excited over hot pizza and chocolate ice cream.

Most of all, I'm going to miss the family I've created here. Everyone I've met at Mercyhurst has had an impact on my life and how I now lead it and I'm so excited to be going on to new opportunities. But I won't forget all the wonderful memories I've made here and the people I've come to love. I hope we all stay in touch for years to come.

I think it's starting to sink in now.

New Set of Wheels

So I have a job for the summer here in Erie. I'm pretty excited, I'll be working for the Intel dept. here on campus doing research. Living on campus should be quiet compared to normal but it's a heck of a lot cheaper than renting a place!

My super exciting news is that I'm getting a car! A real one! With doors and wheels and that drives me back and forth to the grocery store and from Zelie to Erie, even to the beach!

I never realized before what work has to be put into getting a car. This whole going from dealership to dealership, talking to the salesmen about features and deals and test driving different cars on streets you don't know has been exhausting. Luckily I've had some good salesmen to deal with and the deals on the cars are really good right now with the economy in the tank. The dealerships are pretty desperate to get rid of cars before the new ones come in, lucky me! I think I might even be able to afford a new car!

At the moment I'm torn between the Nissan Sentra and the Honda Civic. They're both really good cars with good gas milage, a smooth ride, ipod jack, and lots of safety features. The good gas milage and music system were my requirements, the safety features are my parents. I'm so impressed with the features and safety of the medium range models of these cars. I'm not getting the bottom of the line, those are all manual transmissions and we all know I can't drive that. But to get a good safety system and air conditioning I don't have to go more than the 2nd level of either model! I can see myself in both of them, probably either a blue or silver. All that's left now is to figure out which one will be the better deal ! I'll keep you all posted on the decision.

Otherwise it's a sunny day in Erie. The weather is beautiful and people are out wandering all over campus. Girls are selling tickets to the senior bar crawl outside my house and there's a volley ball game going on down the street. There's finally leaves on the trees and everything is a beautiful color of green. I've been running errands around campus all day, getting myself caught up after the past few hectic weeks. Time to get back to studying, the political writings of Burke and Rousseau are calling me.