I graduate in a few hours.

Wow.

I don’t know what I’m feeling right now, and that’s a bit of a shocker. I’m such an (overly?) analytical person, and normally I can wade through my emotions and classify/quantify/rectify them all. Right now? The last few days? No such luck.

I really don’t like a hell of a lot about Davidson. The administration has the concerns of the students much too far down its list. The harsh grading policies make it more difficult to appear marketable, because despite everything that people AT Davidson will tell you, Davidson does NOT have a national reputation as a tough school that produces high quality people. Nobody gives a damn that your diploma says "Davidson" except somebody else with the same word in the same place on his or her diploma. Not enough of those people have been looking over my applications toward my future…

However, the people I have met here are irreplaceable in my heart. The wonderful friends I have found buried among the homogeny of this institution have shaped my soul. This school has been MY ENTIRE LIFE for four years. That’s a big deal, and as easily as I accept change it has me a little bit nervous.

In an emotional embrace with a wonderful, wonderful friend, the words came to me to tell her what I feel. "I want to get out of this place. I just want to take all of you with me." I know I will be taking them in my heart and my mind, but anybody who has ever had to settle for that knows it is not enough. Part of the reason you love someone is for the way it makes you feel to interact with that person. I love my friends, and I won’t be able to see or interact with them anymore. Maybe we’ll be able to visit one another on occasion, but that is not enough. There is no comparison with being able to walk across the parking lot to a friend’s apartment. Not enough, not enough…

I’ll miss my friends. I’ll miss the Physics faculty, who have been friends and colleagues when all that is required of them is that they be instructors. I’ll miss the professors I have had in other departments who make the same commitment to students. This institution has the potential to be great as long as it continues to hire faculty of this great caliber.

Big, scary future, here I come.

Back... to college days...

The material on this page is not endorsed, Sponsored, Provided, or on behalf of Davidson College.  And now, neither Am I.