broken lights on the freeway

i'm a plane ride away from senior year. the pictures on my walls are staring at me and i feel like it wasn't too long ago that i cried in the car on the way to the airport, that first august. text message from kenzie: "my section reminds me of us as freshmen." remembering that time i tried to sift the cheese powder out of my failed easy mac. remembering the first time we all met. remembering sitting in the study room and falling alseep, nose first, into the adventures of tom sayer. remembering watching the sophomores coming back at 2am on a tuesday and thinking they were crazy. remembering screaming and running down the halls of lewis when we beat michigan state. remembering backstreet boys dance parties with cat in that same hallway. remembering the wonder of the first football game and the first time at the dining hall and the first snowfall where i got so excited i almost broke the lamp. the first everything. it's funny how it all flies by like nothing and then out of nowhere it's time for the last this, the last that.

in the moment i feel like nothing is different, like i've learned nothing, but in an instant i realize that everything is different and i've learned so much. and still, some things remain the same. but i guess what i'm trying to say, after all my standard nostalgia, is that hopefully we did not peak at 21 and that these four years were the best it's ever gonna get. but damn, they've sure been amazing so far and i wouldn't trade it for anything. all of it.