Moving out of a college dorm is hard. Not going to lie. It’s not just the amount of packing and cleaning you have to do. It’s hard because you’re having to pick up a whole year of your life and say goodbye.
Goodbye to the squeaky bed that creaked every time you shifted your weight. Goodbye to the pull-apart couch that slid across the floor every time you sat down. Goodbye to the shower that you stained with paint from that paint party. Goodbye to living in such a confined space, yet knowing how to navigate it perfectly. Goodbye to that sketch elevator that makes weird noises and drops a little too hard on the first floor. Goodbye to having to wait and pounce the minute a washer opens up.
Your dorm room has been your home for 10 months. You’ve cried in it when that boy broke your heart, been ecstatic in it when you passed the test and class you thought you’d fail, been hungover in when you drink just a little too much the night before. It’s been your place. To relax. To be bored. To have fun.
Once it’s all done though, everything packed away and a barren, echoing room is all that’s left. After your roommate has gone and you’re standing in this empty shell of a room. All your memories packed away in the small U-Haul trailer. The school year is over, but the experiences have just begun.
It’s only my second year in college, and my time here has flown by. Just yesterday I was watching Disney’s The Black Cauldron with the boy I kind of liked. We kissed over a poker game in my dorm room, the TV blaring the movie’s end credits. Just yesterday I was setting up my mini Christmas tree, trying to bring a little holiday spirit to my room but wind up dropping $90 I didn’t have to spend. Just yesterday I was stressing about finishing a paper for my English class, over-exhausted and crying because I didn’t think I was going to finish it. Just yesterday I moved in, thrilled to be unpacked and ready for a new school year.
It was all just yesterday.
Sweet Southern Lagniappe 