The count down Begins..

A year has passed and now we stand on the brink of returning to a world where we are surrounded by the paradox of everything and yet nothing being the same. In one month we will reluctantly give our hugs and, fighting the tears, say goodbye to people who were once just names on a sheet of paper to return to people that we hugged and fought tears to say goodbye to before ever left. We will leave or best friends to return to our best friends. We will go back to the places we came from and go back to the same things we did last summer and every summer before. We will come into town on that same familiar road, and even though it has been months, it will seem like only yesterday. As you walk into your old bedroom, every emotion will pass through you as you reflect on the way your life has changed and the person you have become. You suddenly realize that the things that were most important to you a year ago don't seem to matter so much anymore, and the things you hold highest now, no one at home will completely understand.

Who will you call first? What will you do your first weekend home with friends? Where are you going to work? Who will be at the party Saturday? What has everyone been up to in the past few months? Who from school will you keep in touch with? How long before you actually start missing people barging in without calling or knocking? Who will get breadsticks at three in the morning with you now? How long until you adjust to sleeping in a room again? Then you start to realize how much things have, and you realize the hardest part of college is balancing the two completely different worlds you now live in, trying desperately to hold on everything all the while trying to figure out what you have to leave behind. In the matter of one day's traveling time, we will leave our world of living next door to our best friends, walking across campus to eat, instant messenger, 8:30 classes, and perpetual procrastination to a world that will seem foreign to us despite the fact that we lived in it for years. But it is different now. We now know the meaning of true friendship. We know whom we have kept in touch with over the past year and whom we hold dearest to our hearts. We've left our high school worlds to deal with the real world. We've had our hearts broken, we've fallen in love, and we’ve helped our best friends overcome eating disorders, depression, stress, and death. We've given blood to help a fellow student fight leukemia. We've lit candles at the grotto and we've stayed up all night on the phone just to talk to a friend in need. There have been times when we've felt so helpless being hours away from home when we know our families or friends needed us most, and there are times when we know we have made a difference. One month from now we will leave. One month from now we take down our pictures, and pack up our clothes. No more going next door to do nothing for hours on end. We will leave our friends whose random emails and phone calls bring us to laughter and tears this summer. We will take our memories and dreams and put them away for now, saving them for our return to 
One month from now we will arrive. One month from now we will unpack bags and have dinner with our families. We will drive over to our best friend's house and do nothing for hours on end. We will return to the same friends whose random emails and phone calls have brought us to laughter and tears the year. We will unpack old dreams and memories that have been put away past year. In one month we will dig deep inside to find the strength and conviction to adjust to change and still keep each other close. And somehow, in some way, we will find our place between these two worlds.

In One month!!

:'(