This last week of school is definitely shaping up to be pretty anti-climactic for several reasons.

1) With the three easy-peasy classes I'm taking, my mind is pretty much on vacation anyway.

2) I will be back at Ohio State exactly a week after graduation to start my master's.

3) For the first time in four years, I am NOT moving somewhere new in the fall.  HALLELUJAH!

4) I'm not taking any bio classes this quarter, so I've pretty much lost touch with all the classmates in my major except for one girl who is actually my friend.  I've written before about the perceived lack of community within the academic department.  Part of it is simply my own preference to keep school and my personal life separate, and the fact that it is harder to find friends who share my particular set of values in an academic, and particularly a scientific, setting.  (This is not meant to be a criticism, just a statement of my experiences here.)

So in a weird way, my college graduation seems like less of a big deal than my high school graduation did.  For one thing, none of my close friends are graduating with me...we're either in different majors, different schools, or different years.  For another, I'm already used to living on my own (relatively speaking) and my living situation is not changing dramatically for at least another 15 months.  I am excited to embark on the next stage of my life, but I also realize that it will bring new hardships as well as new adventures.  That doesn't diminish the anticipation, but it does temper it with a bit of wisdom.  If I've learned nothing else in my four years here, that temperance might be enough.