Graduating senior reminisces

To quote Kurt Russell in one of the best movies ever, “Great moments are born from great opportunity…that’s what you’ve earned here tonight.”

That’s what I’ve had in my five — yes, five years of college: great moments and great opportunities. Though it’s been a stressful five years, it’s been a really good five years. The only thing I regret is not taking in the little moments that make college great. For example, there is a strong possibility I will miss studying. Call me lame and nerdy, but I actually don’t mind going to the library and studying. Maybe I am just a creature of habit and I have become too used to my schedule that consisted of getting up on Saturdays and going to gym, going to the library (occasionally replaced by football games in the fall) and then spending all day Sunday at the gym and library.

After graduation, I will go to the gym — Lord willing — and then I will have to find something else to fill my day. Of course, maybe it’s not necessarily the studying I will miss so much as the shenanigans that usually took place when I studied with my friends. I even remember getting shushed in the library once for being too loud, which of course only made us laugh even more. Yeah, we were those obnoxious kids that you probably hated. Sorry about that.

But no study session was ever as good as when two of us snuck into a certain locked down apartment complex at six in the morning to get our other friend to sneak in some extra studying time before our last final last semester and later anxiously sitting in the parking lot of Qdoba waiting for it to open so we could get some nutrients to help us make it through that last final before winter break.

Oh, and Sonic. I can still eat at Sonic after graduation, but it will never be the same again. Late night Sonic runs were a staple for the longest time whether it was with my friends when we lived in the residence halls or in Pi Phi when my sisters and I were looking for a study break.

And football: football is my sport and I will never stop loving it, but attending football games will never be the same when I am not standing in the student section yelling “W-Y-O! FIRST DOWN” — well, you know the rest.

Speaking of sports, I never realized how much I would miss watching all the students gather in the Union to watch soccer on television. It’s a great feeling to see everyone cheering when their team scores as you casually make your way to class. It’s a huge part of college culture I never really thought about.

I think that’s what I’m really going to miss — the college culture. Football games, getting a beer with friends, movie nights with my friends that have been a tradition since we were freshmen, running into acquaintances from that club or class. Nothing will be the same after graduation. Not to say that I am not looking forward to moving on to the next step of my life. I am not going to be like Matthew McConaughey in “Dazed and Confused” and keep hanging around UW to relive the glory days, but I will miss everything.

As my friends and I move on from one another to graduate school, marriage or going overseas, I do wish I could recapture all the moments that made my college experience, but I am ready to move on. There is a great big world out there waiting for me to come find it and I know that the next step in my life will be just as exciting.

Just remember, “great moments…great opportunities.” So freshmen, sophomores, juniors, graduating seniors, and class of 2013, remember to take in the small moments like study sessions with friends, late night Wal-Mart trips and seeing Prexy’s turn green whenever — if ever — it stops snowing and freezing. These moments will go by faster than you think. Try not to take it for granted.