Indeed Time Does Fly

Star Exponent Article from Sunday...

A week from now I’ll be shuffling through old binders and filling the reusable ones with enough notebook paper to get me through the first semester.

An old familiar normalcy will quickly replace my lazy summer vibe as I head to that first Monday class.

At the start of week two, I’ll wake before the sun and lace my shoes for the start of preseason basketball practice.

Over the next six weeks I’ll run, jump and shoot until exhaustion at the command of a whistle. I’ll meet new teammates, rekindle connections and together we will grow until we believe that losing is not an option.

Sometime in November I’ll skim through my first couple tests and wonder why on earth I thought I could handle 22 credits … but then I’ll handle it.

The semester will end in what I hope to be satisfying and in the midst of two-a-day practices and winter tournaments, I will forget to acknowledge that I am about to start my very last college semester.

The wins and (very few) losses will come and go and it won’t be until early March that I take a second to recognize time. While the announcer acknowledges my average accomplishments in honor of senior night, the crowd will silence and I’ll remember.

I’ll remember the first time I stepped on that gym floor. I’ll remember how my fellow senior teammate/ roommate complained about Tuesday night TV. I’ll remember dancing on the kitchen floor to relieve stress after class and the way my parents smiled as I walked on to the court for the first game of my very last basketball season.

And then the buzzer will sound. The season will end. I’ll hug my teammates in sweaty jerseys and cry not because it’s over, but because it happened so fast.

I’ll spend April turning in average papers and wondering why teachers don’t understand the definition of “Senioritis.”

Days will dwindle and I’ll grab my cap and gown from some underclassmen working at the bookstore. I’ll want so badly to say, “It goes so fast, enjoy it,” but I won’t.

I’ll find myself walking across a stage where everyone is dressed identical, but I will know I am unique.

And then it will click — probably in late May as I’m moving out my clothing and clutter from the townhouse I had called home for three years. It will click that I had just experienced the most eye-opening, wonderful four years.

I will smile and I will drive away from Shepherd University and into whatever life throws at me. I will be ready.

So College Advice: I’ve always wondered if it was life or time that changes people. I suppose the two together would be the simplest answer, but who really knows. What I do know is that time isn’t for the wasting and life isn’t for the “remember whens.” Soak in the days, they go fast, but when they’re gone, let them go. Yesterday doesn’t want you, so give today your company.