Saying Goodbye...

Today was actually kind of a sad day for me...

Well, I mean... it started out like any other except for the fact that there were two people whom I knew very well who left Happy Valley for good today. Jamie actually left this evening to make his trek towards Pittsburgh where he was going to pick up his father for their trek back to Reno, Nevada where he will spend the rest of his time before heading to Seattle, WA to start at U of Washington (how does one spell U-dub?) in the fall.

The others who left today were none other than my favorite Southerners, Brooke & Stephen Wadsworth. I was really sad to see them go because it's nice every once in awhile to have a conversation with someone who makes your Southern drawl come back while you're chatting away. They're actually moving back to Alabama where Brooke will be finishing her dissertation while Stephen begins his journey into politics by attending law school at the University of Alabama. I guess there's something to be said for going HOME.

This sudden trend in leaving State College had me thinking of all the people who have left fairly recently. It seems my friend Leia started the trend for this year by trekking her way to NYC, where her life is filled with adventures at places like Central Park and Trader Joe's (one of the most interesting grocery stores I've ever been to, honestly). And of course, I know she has had and will have more exciting places with experiences in New York that most of us have only ever dreamed of having. (At least that's what I'm hoping!) But, before that... my friend Bekah moved away. I miss her a lot because she was one of the first friends I ever made here and she was always someone who I could count on for things like a Target run or even, a need to eat a juicy steak. (That's what us Texans are all about anyways!).

I remembered saying good bye to Lisa and Bonny, whom I had the best summer with while I was their basement roommate. Anyone hungry for a cup of frozen peas?!?! I also remember saying goodbye to the first roommate I'd had since my freshman year of college... and that was hard. Even though Julie and I still talk almost everyday, things are different when you don't live in the same household. Even though I manage to get in a lot of weekend visits with her, things living together were truly an experience... I have learned a lot from my friendship with her and I have a lot of memories from the time we have spent together.

But of all these goodbyes, perhaps the hardest goodbye was the one I had to do when I moved up here to Happy Valley. I remembered how hard it was to leave my family, friends, and other hometown favorites and how sure I was that no place would ever be like HOME was. I remember crying as I drove on I-27 in my car, for what I was sure would be the last time my car and I would ever share that experience. And to date, it has been. I remember hearing the Dixie Chicks song "Wide Open Spaces" and crying because at that one point in time, that was exactly what I was seeking-- I just didn't know it at the time.

Three years later, and into my fourth and God willingly final year of graduate school, I began to think about the goodbyes I will have to make someday from this place. I came here so unsure and afraid of what life here was going to be like... whether or not I was meant to be here or just crazy for thinking that this could be my home. I started to think about what it will be like to say goodbye to my roommates, who have been there with me in good days and bad and been my family when I needed them the most. What will it be like to have State College in my rearview mirror unlike that song that Mac Davis sang about my own hometown? Whom will I have to say goodbye too... friends, professors... and even some of my favorite students?

But, most of all... where do I go from here? It's like Tom Petty says... "out in the great, wide open... under the skies of blue." Okay, so that's really the only lyric in that entire song that applies to me... but it's still a good one. :)

So, in this final year here in Happy Valley(fingers crossed!)... in my final summer as a college student (fingers and toes crossed!)... I am going to take the time to enjoy those things here that I have learned to cherish the most: hills, groundhogs, pizza-eating squirrels... a beer at the Skellar with your friends, fishbowls from Beulah's for celebrations... movies at crappy theatres that should have been demolished years ago, the sound of a football game from across town, the chiming of Old Main...the road from Altoona that lead me here and leads me to VA on some weekends, sunny days, rainy days, a run on a trail through some of the most beautiful parts of this town...

So, when the time does come to say goodbye... it won't be "goodbye", it'll just be...
"I'll see you again real soon"