2008 Woodie Awards
Changing it up
Miami memories: moving out and moving on
Erica Flint
Issue date: 4/25/08 Section: OpEd Page
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At 22, my bedroom at home in Minnesota still sports a wallpaper pattern of pink ribbon fashioned into bows, just because I could never bear to change it.
When I was in middle school, my parents told my sister and I that they would put in a swimming pool if we let them tear down our old swing set. My sister consented immediately; I, however, filibustered because I couldn't handle seeing 13 years of swinging memories disappear. We ended up keeping the swing set, and when I went to college my parents tore it down anyway, but it was too late to cash in on the swimming pool deal. Like I said, I don't respond well to change. However, as a Miami University senior graduating in May, change in not only inevitable-it's imminent.
In less then a month I will pack up my things, and for the last time drive away from Miami and the comfort zone I have established here. After taking advantage of having a mall nearby and my mom's home cooking I will once again pack up, but this time it will be to move to Washington, D.C. I will be trading in the Beta Bells for the Washington Monument, frat parties for business functions, Greenhouse and my seven housemates for a place of my own, and Central Quad for the National Mall.
No longer will I have all my best friends living within a block of me. Gone will be the days when I can say "snack" and swipe breakfast, lunch and dinner from Bell Tower. I am now going to have to refer to houses with real addresses instead of creative names. In other words I will be making the transition from a student-a carefree youth-to what I refer to as a "real person."
If that's not change, then I don't know what is.
Normally the magnitude of this change would be enough to derail me. I mean, leaving the place and the friends I have grown to know and love over the past four years is way bigger than getting rid of a swing set-and we all know how I responded to that. However, I am doing my best to take this change in stride and make the most of my time left among the red bricks, dining hall food and dollar pitchers. I have made sure to eat at my favorite places again, walk by my favorite buildings. I have spent time with my friends instead of doing homework.
Part of the ease of the transition comes from the fact that deep down, I know I am ready to move on. I know this because sometimes when walking through the quad or uptown on the weekends I feel old.
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