Whew!

I'm finished!

I just got back from my last official final of my undergraduate career! Clearly, I have another semester to go, but none of my classes will be "final test" type classes- just papers or portfolios! AMAZING!

And yet, as I walked out into the street the feeling of sadness sifted through me. And I remembered that I always feel sad when I finish finals. Not that I LOVE the stress, but that I love the challenge, and that I'm reasonably good at it because I enjoy learning so much.

The triumph of being finished for a whole months certainly outweighs that faint sadness, and yet I feel it with a bit more intensity this time, knowing its the last time I'll finish THIS way- just before Christmas, bursting through the doors of the Silver Center with a cheesy grin on my face, just like I did freshman year.

I've been feeling a strange nostalgia- or perhaps its not strange- for the last few years, and yet I'm so happy to be HERE. Now. But it has hit me harder than it has before that I am going to REALLY REALLY REALLY miss this place, and this thing- College- the atmosphere. I've had so many "I love NYU" and "I love Gallatin" moments (no, really... strange, I know) the last few days, and even today, in the middle of my essay test as I was writing away, felt that swell of endearment. Gosh, I'm a nerd.

I am, though, more and more ready to be in a new phase of life. While college has been so wonderful, I'm eagerly anticipating completing it. Less than two months until my Colloquium, and just under five months until I graduate. Wow... after 22 years I think I'm ready.

I'll never be ready to be DONE with school- never reach that golden brown stage of ready-to-eat academic achievement, and yet I think a change 'll do me good.

So there you have it. Some nonsensical musings about now and then and just now and all that... I'm sure you're in for a lot more of that as the true 'end' of this stage approaches.

For now, though, I wish you all very Merry Christmases and Happy Hanukkas and Fatastico New Years and Amazing Trips to Israel or Colorado or North Carolina or California or Minnesota or Georgia or Tennessee....