Today as I was scrolling through Facebook and all the graduation posts-most of which I was ignoring-I was stopped by one classmate’s status about graduation. It was a long post but it seemed to encompass everything I have been feeling.

My classmate made the point that even though we’ll be uprooted from our home for the past four years soon, we just have to bring the JMU community with us wherever we go. She quoted the “famous” Alpha Spitzer quote that summarizes JMU perfectly,

JMU is not just an institution of higher learning, it is a spirit, it is an atmosphere it is… a way of life I am glad to say that I have lived – Alpha Spitzer, ’37

Then I went to my last Psych of Learning class and after going over information for the final, my teacher talked about the importance of education. Recently, 200 Nigerian girls were kidnapped for going to school. And then there’s Malala Yousafzai, who was shot by the Taliban on her way to school in Pakistan.

I always feel guilty that I’ve taken a lot of my education for granted. And more importantly, I feel like I’ve taken JMU for granted without even realizing it. I spent all of freshmen year being paralyzed by homesickness and I feel like I need another year in order to make up for the year I wasn’t in love with JMU and calling it my home. It’s hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that in just ten days I’ll be graduating. Thanks to Maymester, however, I won’t be leaving for another month. But after Maymester, I have to officially pack up my apartment and leave Harrisonburg. The feeling is definitely bittersweet.

But in the meantime, I plan on spending my time living out the rest of my senior year as much as possible with my best friends and roommates.

Love purple, Live gold.