As I sat in the back seat to my car, it was like all of my life was flashing before my eyes. My parent’s faces were the most dominating part of my daydream. I could imagine them smiling, and I could also imagine fear on their faces, and pride and disappointment. I had seen their expressions too many times to know the sentiment behind each and every emotion that played across their faces. That day, however, I saw them coming out of the five-bedroom house that I had inhabited until today, and I was out of guesses as to what was going on in their minds. That very moment, a very familiar sentence passed through my memory, one that I had read merely days before. ‘There are moments which mark your life. Moments, when you realize nothing, will ever be the same and time is divided into two parts, before that moment and after.’ I had a feeling that this was one of those moments. Everything was changing too fast to catch up, and yet, it also felt like time had stood still.
I could see them coming towards the car. They had barely spoken one word to each other or to me all morning. I wasn’t complaining. I had also needed space to adjust to the idea of living in another place for the next four years of my life. They both got in and the car and started driving. The journey ahead was a long one, and it was a wonderful opportunity to adjust my perspective of the future. I had failed that day to find the enthusiasm in me, one that had inspired me to apply to MSU in the first place. I was happy with my decision to live so far away from my home. I knew for a fact that my parents were also very proud. But this was the price to pay for my future, one that was as much my parent’s as it was my own to bear.
I thought about Maria, my roommate that I had seen a chance to connect with on the social media. She was flying in from another country. I could hardly imagine how she must have been feeling in the moment that she had said goodbye to her family. Had she reached by now? I found myself wondering. I had admired that girl when I had met her during orientation. I had liked how excited she was about studying at MSU. I thought she was very brave to be moving to another country to study. I did some soul searching to find the same bravery inside, one that would take me closer to the future I had imagined for myself.
My memories flashed back to orientation day. I had liked everything about MSU, and I remember being proud of the choice that I had made. I liked how friendly people were in the cafeteria, I had loved how cozy and invited the university library had seemed that day, and I had absolutely adored the classrooms that I was going to study in. I could imagine myself spending night after night in the library, studying for tests and preparing assignments. I could see myself making friends with all the people who had seemed so polite that day. My mind told me I was ready, to give my all to my education. I could feel my dreams returning to me at that moment. I was confident I was going to do well.
That confidence was probably the emotion that had shown in my eyes at that moment for when my eyes met with my fathers’ in the rear view mirror; I saw him relax in his seat. He was no longer afraid because I was probably not worried about going to college anymore. The thought made me happy. After I had figured out the concerns I was most worried about, my mind started taking me towards thoughts that were more exciting. I was happy to so many parties that I was going to attend in the future. I was anticipating the best friend that was going to stick with me through the next four years of my life. This was going to be a time when I was to experience many different moments for the very first time. The thought filled me with anticipation.
At that moment, my father told a joke, and I saw laughter well up in my mother’s eyes. It wasn’t long after that that the car was filled up with banter and light hearted stories. The environment had gone from extremely tense to cheerful in a matter of three hours and everybody seemed to me going off to college was a change that we could take in a stride. So by the time the car stopped before the front building of the campus I had seen all too many times in my dreams, I left all of the fears behind and walked into the campus with great plans for the days that were to come.
List of References
Pinterest. (n.d.). Explore these ideas and more! Retrieved February 09, 2016, from Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/181340322469122503/
