This is my last summer as a college student, and I’ve spent it thinking about how my life will be so different in only four fleeting months when I graduate in December.
As I search the second floor of Marquette University’s library for my next summer read, I think about how I won’t have access soon. As I agree to spontaneous ice cream trips and days spent lounging under the Milwaukee sun, I think about how I may not live close enough for spontaneity anymore. As I take senior photos through the newsroom in Johnston Hall, I think about how I won’t be one of the exhausted, stressed yet, somehow, grinning faces bouncing around the second floor.
Sometimes, when the campus streets are soaked in melting snow and gray clouds hide the sun for days, I worry winter will never leave. It feels like I just have to get through this week, only to feel like that again the next Monday as I look over my assignments.
But then, it’s the middle of July and I’m dialing my air conditioning colder and colder and feeling nostalgic about the three sections of escapism fiction at the Raynor Memorial Library that, before this summer, I had only stepped into for a Tuesday afternoon class.
It’s a goofy feeling to miss everything before I really even have to say goodbye.
But as I begin my last semester at Marquette, I also feel grateful to have such amazing memories that make a 100-year-old building like Johnston Hall and a newsroom with a nasty mini fridge worth missing.
That mini fridge wasn’t even in my memories at this time last year. Before my junior year, I rarely stepped into the newsroom. I was on the radio desk where I could complete all my audio packages with voice memos on my phone and software on my laptop.
Then, last year, I stumbled into the position of Arts & Entertainment Executive Editor, and suddenly my Monday nights were booked until May 2022. It was during one of those continuous Monday nights that I realized an interesting scenario. One year prior that time: I couldn’t swipe into this room, and I only knew my new friends as tiny names on screens. And a year forward from that time: I wouldn’t be able to swipe into this room, and I may only talk to these new friends over screens.
I don’t know where I’ll be after these next four fleeting months. Maybe I stay in Milwaukee, maybe I go somewhere else. But in these four fleeting months, find me in the Marquette Wire newsroom living every memory I can.
To Kate: Thank you for being my first friend on campus. Thursday nights at Caff’s and the quick snacks afterward in our kitchen will never fail to bring a smile to my face.
To Aimee and Alex Rivera Grant: Thank you for saying how funny I am. It’s greatly contributed to my ego.
To my lovely A&E team: Thank you for Local Love; I’ve never been more proud of anything.
To Megan, Izzy, Patrick and so many more: Thank you for arriving in my life last year. I’m so grateful to have another four months to cheer you on at the Wire.
To Skyler, John and Alex Garner: Thank you for inspiring me endlessly. I want to be like you all when I’m older.
To Nick: Thank you for always listening to my complaints – I know there are a lot.
To all the memories I haven’t lived yet, I already miss you.
This story was written by Randi Haseman. She can be reached at [email protected].
