Graduation, Take Two

I realized something after this weekend- Graduation is a lot more fun when you don't have to worry about the whole graduating part.  I got to pretend I was in college again, relive Tent City in all its glory (and oh... it was glorious), and enjoy all the other benefits of Trinity's graduation festivities WITHOUT the sentimental and buzz-killing side effects.  For me last year, it was having to say goodbye to some of my best friends... and the fact that my parent's got in a head-on collision with an (allegedly) coked-out Trin alum.

I was one of the few who was excited for the day to come because it meant seeing my wonderful boyfriend for the first time in six weeks.  All the while, I was fully aware that most of the people on the other side were counting down the days in dread rather than in ecstatic anticipation.  But it still gave me a chance to look back at where I was at this time a year ago, at how I was feeling about coming into the elusive "real world", and about how much better their graduation speaker was than ours.  My thoughts?

You never know how lucky you are.

I don't mean that as a way of saying "Enjoy getting drunk in college as long as you can, because you can never do that again!"  First of all, that is not true.  You absolutely CAN get as drunk as you did in college, although now it's frowned upon.  In a bigger sense, I don't think a lot of people realize just how much they have working in their favor to be able to attend college, pay for college, graduate from college.  People don't realize how lucky they are to be healthy, functioning adults, to have friends and family that love and support them.  As much as occasions like graduation are sad, I think they're also a testament to the myriad of positive things we have in our lives.  If anything, that's what this weekend made me think about (besides how much I missed my friends from Trin).

I was going to write this slightly sentimental post right when I got back, but getting bronchitis and an ear infection on the plane ride home kind of robbed that feel-good, Hallmark-y feeling I had going on.  Thank goodness the antibiotics kicked in.