Final Moments

Sitting across from the Storey dining room, with the midday sun beating down on campus and a much-too-warm breeze filtering in from outside, I realize that Toi and Irma are cleaning out the kitchen and preparing to close it down for the summer. The clink of forks against ceramic plates mixed with the smell of barbeque chicken pizza: this lunch is the final meal I'm going to have here for a long time.

On Monday, the six T$ sophomores squeezed into Grace's car and went down El Camino to Gombei, a little Japanese restaurant where the majority of us chose Beef Teriyaki. Sharing our summer and autumn plans, the bunch of us have had the strange luxury of being together for two years in a similar context. In spite of the massive changes and oscillating levels of intimacy, to be able to sit in a restaurant sipping water, sharing food, and throwing around little rumors (Kyle dating someone in FCS?) has an ineffably heartwarming feel to it. Frozen yogurt, singing songs (always thinking-for the last time), eating gum. And then back to campus for photographs, more singing, hugs... and each of us parted in our own directions. The last time all of us will be together for a long time.

I just finished the final exam for HumBio, completing a year long sequence. As with SLE, there's a sigh of relief mixed with a sigh of wistful regret. Sitting inside Kresge, the fluorescent lights leaving a slightly off-green tone on the skin, the light outside the window swishing through the leaves, watching everyone take their exams suggests a hidden camaraderie that I find missing in most other classes. That's going to be the final time all of us congregate together in one room: it's an interesting thought experiment to image the sheer degree of talent and fame that many of these peers will achieve.

It's noontime.