Humidity, Nostalgia, & the End

It's been humid lately. The air has been heavy with rain storms arriving each afternoon. My 1 or 2 p.m. outdoor jogs this week haven't always ended before the skies opened. The rainstorms remind me of summer, despite that the flowers have barely arrived and the leaves haven't grown, the rainstorms are welcome, the air smells fresh.

Essex, Vermont, May 2nd.

I finished my college education this morning. I'll graduate this week and I don't think it's hit me that I'm finished. I had a few assignments left for this past week and probably could have completed them all on Tuesday or Wednesday but wanted to space them out over four or five days. I was afraid to end too soon, to have leftover time and need to say goodbye to assignments and college work too soon.

In the process, I thought about nostalgia and memories. Both are beautiful and happy, as if the positivity at the end erases any negativity during. I loved my college experience. I've loved the last four years, yet the last seven days have been so filled with laughter, fun and excitement. They don't reflect the last four years that they're a celebration of, it's as if the quiet days aren't memorable, yet together, they formed the celebration.

At a Kentucky Derby celebration yesterday.

While driving this evening, words spoken in a 1966 political speech remained in my head. "For the fortunate among us, there is the temptation to follow the easy and familiar paths of personal ambition and financial success, so grandly spread before those who have the privilege of education. But that is not the road history has marked out for us." --Robert F. Kennedy, South Africa, June 6, 1966 

A small selection of the staples I removed from the academic papers, assignments and readings I recycled this afternoon.

My dorm room wall. :)