Bringing Me Back To Those Hills

The presence of my college keeps breaking through to me like Rose's faintly heard messages to the Doctor, or the crack on the bedroom wall that was not supposed to be anywhere.

The memories keep coming back about how much a wonderful life I led at that place. Up until now, I have seemed to work on a routine, always going four years, dropping down, beginning anew, resetting the equation. But now... Now I don't want to forget. I don't want to start fresh this time.

I want to go back. I want to continue with what was once was.

High school was miserable. I wanted a complete reset in life, one to start again from square one. I feel, looking back on it, I left some people in the dark, some people I highly regret leaving there... But at the time, I wanted the change.

So I had it. I went off to college some odd 400 miles away. Enough to drive in a day, but not enough to drive on a regular basis. A good distancing from my old life. And things were great. The world was a mystical place, full of new experiences and potential.

Then came the wear and tear of academic life. The sleepless nights, the endless fun with friends, the constant research. All of it came to a point of acclimation. I had figured it out. I had done the best, and completed the curriculum. I had won college.

And then, in a blur and flurry... Graduation.

And summer.

And VISTA.

And now... Well... Now(?)

Now that I have had time for it to sink in... I am not going back to that wonderful environment that I had adjusted to so well. It was lost, only to be relived and remembered in snipets available at certain times and certain places.

But here I sit, wanting to admire. Wanting to hold my college up high, hold my place and my friends up in a glory of pride!

Pride? Is this what it feels like to be proud? I have not really felt such feelings so strongly for a place, a lifestyle, an area. What I miss so much, and what I love so much, and what I feel so much for is my four wonderful, amazing, unbelievable, and miraculous years at that institution.

I want to share that feeling, help others to love that college! I want to make sure every student who wants, gets the chance to experience something like I did! To have the opportunity to live the four best years of your life thus far in that amazing, pretentious, and life-changing oaken and ivory chair that Wilson strives to tear down and recreate from the ground up! To let you work with your hands, appreciate the office, the classroom, the community! The views, the exploration, the magical fairyland of the self!

But to those who matter most to me in my life: My best friend... and my best friends. My advisors, my professors, my opponents. My family. All those who have touched my life significantly over not only the last four years, but the last eight, the last twelve, the last twenty-two. Thank you all so, so very much for helping me this far.

I never think I have stopped to actually thank you, and tonight, I find all is right with the world, and what not a better time to give praise, and be proud.

Oh I thought those mountains would go forever. And as it turns out... They do.