4 years of my life

It all started inside a dorm room. You moved your things in and wondered what kind of weirdness your roommate was going to bring. You waved goodbye to your parents, and thought about the sudden lack of air in your dad's voice when he said, "Be good, and don't forget to call."\nYou wondered about the one smelly kid on the floor. No one ever saw the kid shower. But at least that explained the smell coming from the kid's room. It seemed like a combination of Glade and a sweaty armpit. \nBut the ones who didn't have hygiene problems were often the ones who accompanied you to grab some food. Sometimes you ran to a food court to get something terribly unhealthy. And there were days when you made it to the dining hall during the 15 minutes it was actually open. \nYou told yourself you would avoid the "freshman 15." You didn't want to be that person who looked like they used to be thin, or you might not have cared at all about your weight. The Student Recreational Sports Center was either your best friend or a strange, foreign location. There really wasn't any middle ground.\nBut the SRSC wasn't the only place to pass the time. The people in your residence hall always found ways to make you want to do something other than study. There were movies to watch, games to play and that one person who could keep you entertained for hours. \nThen there was the day when you, the big sophomore, were laughing at the freshmen. Your favorite freshmen were the ones who walked like they were too cool for school. Then you realized how uncool you were for using a phrase like "too cool for school."\nBut you didn't care anymore. You realized that being cool was part of the propaganda high school kids toss at each other. And you were certainly becoming too old for that garbage. \nBut you were not old enough to look for a fake I.D. You'd try to figure out who looked like you out of your friends who were already 21. Some people were lucky because they had older brothers or sisters, and then there was that one Asian friend who couldn't find another Asian guy who was six feet tall. \nBut the day finally came. You made it to the age where the local bars would welcome you with open arms … right after they did a body cavity search and asked you for two forms of identification. \nYou found out that the Bluebird was the happening place on Wednesday. And you eventually made it to Sports, Kilroy's on Kirkwood and the Upstairs Pub. You didn't really know what to make of Mars, and you were even confused more when people started calling the place Axis. \nAnd then there was Nick's. The sacred ground reserved for seniors and graduate students. Well, that's the way it used to be. But there are a lot of things that changed over the years.\nAnd every change we faced gave us a chance to show the outside world how gracefully, or ungracefully, we could act. It is hard to forget the demonstration/riot after former men's basketball coach Bob Knight was fired. It wasn't our finest hour, but it wasn't the University's, either.\nThere were many times we will not try to forget. It will be easy to remember how you don't really remember that much from your last Little 500 week. And it will be hard to forget the pure bliss that followed Kirk Haston's three-point dagger into the heart of Michigan State. \nBut the small moments will be the ones that linger after you pick up your cap and gown. You will recall the laugh of your favorite professor, the group that made your project fun and the time you let that idiot you call your friend take a shot at cutting your hair.\nAnd when it's all said and done, it will end just as it began. Your dad will wrap his arm around you and that strange voice will once again escape from his throat. It will almost sound like a whisper when he says, "We're so proud of you." \nAnd right as that water starts to collect around your eyes, you will wonder where the heck those last four (five, six … stop when this applies to you) years have gone. It all went by so fast, and no one was really taking notes.\nWhere we go from here is anybody's guess, but one thing's for sure. School is not just out this time. It's out for life.\nCongratulations to the graduating class of 2001. You've been a joy to write for.