Endings and Beginnings

On Thursday, as I usually do, I took my lunch to the graduate lounge to eat before going into work.  Most Thursdays the lounge is teeming with people getting ready for their afternoon class, or-- more recently-- finishing up final papers.  When I opened the door yesterday, the room was empty and still.  A few minutes later a first-year showed up-- finishing a final paper-- and we chatted for a bit as I ate.  Then, as I packed up my bags to walk over to the library, I realized that I had just eaten what would probably be my last lunch in the graduate lounge.  No more will I grab a quick bite before work, or before class.  I have no need to spend hours in the English Department, and no need to stock my shelf in the graduate lounge with tea and popcorn and granola bars.  In fact, my shelf looks rather bare these days, devoid even of my theory reader which has occupied the space for the past two years.

Yesterday marked another momentous 'last.'  My last day of work in Special Collections, at least for the foreseeable future.  For the last time as a graduate student assistant, I pulled open the glass doors into the center and helped researchers at the reception desk.  I cleaned up my space in the workroom and bid adieu to the processing room and the stacks.  One of my co-workers made me brownies from scratch, and we watched the WWII planes fly over DC from the library window.

After work, summer really began.  I met Cara and Amanda by the John Carroll statue and we stretched out in the sun on Healy lawn.  After awhile, we walked to Amanda's to pick up a bottle of Pimms, then headed across the river to sit outside on the balcony at my place.  We met up with Zan, Amanda made Pimms Cup, and we soaked up the warmth of the afternoon.  Around seven, we met up with Harry and Charlotte for a sushi dinner and split bottles of sake, then afterwards we all returned to the balcony to sit out in the warm night talking about the past and the future.  It seems magnificent that the weather is warm enough to sit outside at night.  Not long ago the idea of summer seemed impossible.  Yet, in less than a week we will all have graduated, onto new adventures.  A summer stretches before us, full of possibilities.      
  
Even though I finished all of my requirements for my M.A. a few weeks ago, and received word that my thesis was officially accepted by the graduate school a little over a week ago, the routine of work kept me coming to campus and feeling like this graduate student life would never actually end.  But somehow, it has.  My thesis was difficult, and this year was trying in many ways, but I absolutely could not have asked for a better M.A. cohort than the class of 2015.