July 24th marked the day we had all been dreading for weeks. However, this day started long before yesterday really ever ended. When the clock struck twelve, our marathon to the end began. With no curfews in place, we wanted to spend every one of our final hours together before we left. From card games, to movies, to pool, to ultimate hide and seek, we wanted to do everything we possibly could together before our time ran out. It was the world’s greatest slumber party and I was so happy to be a part in it.
The day “ended” for me when I had to watch the bus full of my friends slowly pull out of campus on their way to the airport. Never in my life have I cried like I did in that moment, because I knew what that would mean. And unfortunately, my suspicions were correct. When I got home I realized that for the first time in a long time, it was silent. I ate lunch with no friends yelling across the room, laughing till their faces went red. I fell asleep without my roommates telling me about their day and discussing weirdly philosophical questions. And weirdly enough, I never thought I’d find myself missing the problem sets that plagued me during SSP. And to make matters worse. The fact that this silence would be permanent settled in. From now on, every night would be a silent one.
Originally, I was going to end my post there. However after letting it settle in for a very long time, I remembered a great quote by the famous Andrew B.
“Don’t be sad it’s ending, be happy it happened”.
This cheesy line holds some truth to it. I have changed and improved so much through SSP, and I’m so happy that I was able to come here, meet outstanding new people, learn incredible new things, and change the course of my life because of it.
-Darnell
