Sitting in the library of my university, my gaze shifts from the article on my screen to the billowing pines blowing in the winter wind. The snow swirls and floats around the grey sky, and my mind has wandered. It occurs to me that beyond these walls of academia, both physical and metaphoric, my light shines far brighter than I could have imagined.

Being in my fifth and final year of my degree, I have expended much of my energy, time, and well-being. I believe my time has been wisely spent, and I choose to have no regrets. As this coming spring approaches in a exceedingly rushed fashion, my mind backtracks to all that has happened and brought me to where I am right now. I have gone through all of the motions, pushed through adversity, and peaked and plummeted countless times within half of a decade.

School has been an adventure. My eighteen year-old mind would not have comprehended half the shit that I have learned, done, or seen up until this twenty-third year of life.

I watch as new students meander their way around campus like I once had. I admire my colleagues, as they push themselves to finish that paper with their third or fourth cup of coffee in the library at night, as I do the same. I laugh as professors begin teaching in the wrong lecture hall, as even they get lost on the first day. There is a sense of community, an unspoken bond that we all share within this system.  A feeling of belonging and relatedness exists between these interactions, something I am strangely going to miss.

As grateful I am for these lessons though, I am so ready to get out. I am eager to pursue my creative spirit that runs wild with the sight of trees dancing in the wind, and to leave behind the incessant pressures that academia pushes upon us. I will forever carry with me the knowledge I have learned and shared, and I will leave behind my ignorance and keep my mind open until the end of my days.

Remember your light,

M.