this past Sunday

I officially finished my undergraduate career. It was strangely anti-climactic, walking across the stage and shaking the hand of the President of the College, but I guess that's how it goes sometimes. There were no tears, no moments of intense nostalgia, but rather, a feeling of relief and the intense desire to go eat sushi (what can I say? My last name is near the end of the alphabet and the speeches dragged on for a bit! Also, it was a rather hot day, and I'm always game for sushi when it gets hot.)

I did, however, get choked up when I moved into my new apartment afterwards. For the first time in my life, I will be living absolutely and completely alone. I'm feeling incredibly apprehensive/nervous about it, but at the same time, I keep getting this sense of excitement for the future. While I don't doubt that it's going to be difficult (and that I will probably go a bit loopy, as I tend to do when there's no one around), I can't imagine that I won't get some good personal growth out of it as well. I guess we'll have to see.

For now, I'm at home in my cozy little Midwestern suburb, shopping away the hours and counting down the days til I move back into my apartment. I don't know that I'll be updating much in the coming weeks, but if I'm feeling productive, I may do some good (academic) reading and post some summaries. Otherwise, know that I'm lounging and enjoying myself thoroughly.

last chances, last dances

I've always been a huge fan of random, potentially awkward personal risks, so I was really gratified last night to receive a facebook message from someone at my school who I have actually never met before. The message was a cute little note about how this person has always admired my personal style/comportment (yeah, what can I say, a little flattery never hurts), and that because the end of the year is fast approaching and an opportunity for a "natural" meeting hasn't come up, we should get together/get to know each other sometime.

Possibly creepy? Absolutely! But I don't tend to interpret things like that. I'd rather think about how awesome and brave it is to message someone you don't know and basically put yourself out there to possibly form a friendship. (Though I guess a full disclaimer would be that I have done such a thing in the past as well. The first person that I dated my freshmen year was a random sophomore that I had an international politics class with but had never spoken to, and the way that got started was that I sent the most hilarious and awkward email EVER.)

In any case, we'll see how the facebook friendship pans out. I sent back quite a long message and an offer to grab a meal sometime. Will I regret this? Possibly, but I really doubt it, even if it ends up going badly. As I said, I'm a huge fan of people who are willing to risk themselves and awkwardness to make a personal connection.

On a similar note, I got another facebook message today about a party that is being thrown this Saturday to celebrate seniors. Apparently the person who is throwing it wants permission to use my name/picture because he's "highlighting" some seniors. I'm pretty apprehensive about this because I haven't talked to this guy since freshmen year, but because it was such an intriguing request, I conditionally gave permission (contingent on him telling me exactly HOW he is using my name/image).

Finally, my oral defense went really, really well today. I'll write about this in more detail tomorrow after I get back from apartment hunting, but the main point is that it should be smooth sailing for me (fingers crossed!) for the rest of the year.