As someone who spent six years in higher education as a student and now as someone who works with college students, my life revolves around semesters. Life focuses on four months at a time. Sure, college is typically measured in years (the best four to seven years of your life, as the saying goes) but life really revolves around a semester to semester existence. Semesters come and semesters go.
Each new year and each new semester bring new people into my life. I can't recall a semester in the past seven years where I didn't meet someone new and form a new friendship or relationship. This is what made college and graduate school so special and what continues to make my time in my job special as well. There is the constant opportunity to open up my life to new people, new experiences. With this, there is the opportunity to allow someone to become a part of my life and change my experiences and myself in ways never before believed possible.
I feel fortunate to have allowed many people to become a part of my life over the past ten months I have spent in Memphis. I feel pretty blessed to be supported by my coworkers and trusted by the students I work with on a daily basis. I also feel extremely grateful for the ways in which these people have changed me that make me prouder of who I am, both personally and professionally. It is with a deep sense of gratitude and pride that I think about the many interactions I have had this past year that have had a great influence on my life.
Over the last two weeks, though, I have also experienced feelings of sadness as I have had to say good-bye to some amazing individuals who I had the pleasure of knowing throughout this year. I wish I could say confidently that the time I spent with them was everything I needed it to be and wanted it to be. But life isn't always fair, and for some, I wish there was more time spent together and more memories to hold on to tightly for the rest of time.
I know I should try to erase these feelings of sadness and perhaps adopt the motto "Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened" (I think that gets credited to Dr. Seuss). Yet, I can't shake the feeling right now of wishing there was a little bit more -- just one more moment to make a memory that can last a lifetime.
I hope if you're reading this and you are one of those people, you know how truly special you are in my life and that I am sad to see you go. I guess I will have to hold on to the hope that our paths will cross again and we are presented with the opportunity to create just one more memory.
And so it is that another semester has come and gone. I guess I just needed to take some time out of the hustle and bustle of my life to reflect on the many people that have influenced me this past year. In closing, I find this quote sums up my feelings:
"Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Others stay for a while and move our souls to dance. They awaken us to understanding, with the passing whisper of their wisdom. Some people make the sky more beautiful to gaze upon. They stay in our lives for awhile, leave footprints on our hearts,and we are never, ever the same." - Anonymous
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2 comments:
So I came to your blog to read the music fest recap (as directed in BV's blog) but I had to read this entry...Hmmm...how to best respond? Perhaps, a thousand times Amen! I definitely echo you sentiments, even down to how I will always think of my life in semesters! :-) It's amazing how quickly we form bonds with people and students, which just underscores that we're doing what we should be doing with our lives...and that makes all the coming and going well worth it. Leaving Memphis, the staff, & my students was the hardest professional decision I've had to make...Your ending quote made me think of one of my favorites: "Your days are short here; this is the last of your springs. And now in the serenity and quiet of this lovely place, touch the depths of truth, feel the hem of Heaven. You will go away with old, good friends. And don't forget when you leave why you came."
-Adlai E. Stevenson
For beginnings and endings and everything in between, rock on my friend.
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