If you graduated this weekend and did not have a single anxious thought about leaving UW-Madison, you probably:

1. Didn’t have a life changing experience at Madison
2. Have other pressing issues on your mind
3. Were too hungover to think about anything beyond a toilet and two pills of ibuprofen

The emotions on campus this past week have been, for lack of a better word, interesting. Many of my friends on campus have talked about their fears of the future, their sadness of leaving best friends and the general mentality that we simply won’t be college students anymore.

I’m essentially an emotional robot on the outside and cannot cry. Do I wish I could cry – yes. Have I tried to cry – yes. Will I cry within the next two weeks – most likely not, but there’s a chance that it might happen.

Instead, my mind is in a weird state of transition that’s filled with a weird sense of optimism towards the future.  I figured that instead of telling people when they’re crying, I’d blog about it.

My mentality: yeah, graduating sucks and is painful.

The Pain

Last night, I had a run-in with a road cone at someone’s apartment (practical joke that ended up with me having a bloody nose… mom, if you’re reading this, I’m fine and you don’t need to have a panic attack.) Right now, I’m still in pain. Getting hit in the face sent a weird shock through my body and I couldn’t really think straight at the time because I thought that I had a broken nose.

Now, I’m a little swollen and bruised up, but I know that in a few days I’ll be fine and life will go on.

Graduating, in my opinion, is like a blow to your face, but it’s so much deeper. Most seniors have rooted themselves in something on campus – whether that entity is research, leadership within a student organization, being an athlete or volunteering out in the community – only to find their best friends. When you realize that those friends won’t be a two minute walk away, that’s when it hits you: oh fuck, I’m graduating and life won’t be the same. I mean – I’ve made friends this semester who have literally changed my life and I don’t know what I’ll do when I’m not in the same town as them (yes, you probably know who you are when you read that last statement).

Now I’m not talking about the friends that you see on the street and wave to while walking to class. I’m writing about those individuals to whom you can confide in; the people who’s happiness and joy reflects through your own actions; the people who don’t have the time to talk about your pressing issues but instead will MAKE time to speak with you; the friends who are your other half (yes, these people do exist and I’m not trying to be cliché.)

The Future

If I had an answer to solving the mess of leaving these friends, you’d probably know it as well and thus wouldn’t give two cents about this post. But I’ve had the chance to speak with people older than myself who shared some words of advice – I think these words continually give me the ability to not stress about the present but look forward to the future (and maybe I’m full of bullshit and will be a depressed wreck in two weeks; for right now, I’m doing fine).

My current boss at Hillel told me a few words that really shaped everything into perspective: “you’ll stay in contact and be best friends with the people who really matter to you.”

This put me into a spiral of thinking. I’ve thought, then pondered, then wondered and questioned, etc. etc about this concept. And you know what – I think it’s true. Just think about all of the people that you’ve encountered in college – you tend to gravitate and communicate with the people who become your good friends. If you communicated frequently with every person you’ve met in a class or student organization, you literally wouldn’t be able to have friends with whom you share deep emotional bonds with.

And I’ve come to a conclusion: we live in an age where communicating and staying in touch is easy. Holding on to those emotional threads that we share with our best friends – sharing the quick conversations about our days and the highs/lows of our dedication to leadership and work – they don’t have to end. We have the digital tools and technologies that make conversations and interactions almost (I’m saying almost because there will never be something quite like a deep dug or a shoulder to cry on) similar to interaction in the physical world.

Just think about it: we have (and let the list begin)

• Facebook
• Email
• gChat
• FB Chat
• Twitter
• Skype
• Skype Video Phone Calls
• Facetime Phonecalls
• Foursquare
• Flickr
• Blogs
• BBM
• Cell Phones (okay, that seems like a given but think about 30 years ago when a phone call was confined to sitting in a home at a specific time)

I’m 97.68% positive that I’ve missed something in this list. Hopefully, you understand the point I’m trying to convey.

And also, you can coordinate weekends to meet up with people who live in other areas of the country. I’ve seen this with people like my brother and his friends. They’re all busy (he’s in med school, two of his other friends are in law school, his other best friend travels to and from Haiti, yada yada yada) but manage to coordinate times to meetup and have a good time. Those weekends seem to be the force that reignites their friendships, but the moments of small conversation drive their emotional connections. (editor’s note: if Southwest airlines is reading this, the company should hire me as a spokesperson and give me free travel across the country to talk about their services… I tried and now digress…)

Summing It Up

If you’ve read to this point of the blog, you obviously are a graduating senior and actually care what I’m talking about. Maybe I’m full of it and don’t know anything about the future – I don’t know. I guess the point I want to get across is that although graduating sucks, we’ll still maintain (and hopefully further develop) the relationships and friendships that have bloomed over the last 4 years. Yes, I’m going to drink the cliché Kool Aid right now and say it: once Badgers, always Badgers.

That’s all folks. Thanks for a great 8 semesters and giving me the chance to figure out my true passions in life.

PS- my nose still hurts.