...A Transition...

Waking up the morning after graduation has to be one of the weirdest feelings I have ever had. I did have job training to complete; I had got to discuss Fellowship of the Ring at 8:00 in the morning. This was fun, but I couldn't help resenting it a little bit for keeping me from staying out late with friends the night before. Apparently I missed a hot mess of tears and laughter and more hugging that lasted until 4:00 in the morning. I'm sure I would have lost it.

After I was done with training, Daniel and I started the long process of cleaning our apartment and packing up the last of our things. We had accumulated piles and piles of odd things. We had a table specifically for our "oddities" such as a dippy drink bird, a shirt signed by Tommy Wiseau himself ("Be good!"), a light saber, naked lady Vegas cards, a dead cactus pot, a gooey hourglass thing, and several other odds and ends complete with a bongo drum hanging over it all. Although we had a specific place set aside for this type of clutter, it still took ages to gather everything to move. Brittney helped us by taking our leftover food items and advising us on how to clean things because we're stupid boys. Eventually, I had cleared out my room except for a desk and bed that I will pick up in August.

This room contains 3 years' worth of memories. It was hard to take this picture.

Somehow, we finally got the last of our things packed and extra items stored in one room. We weren't done until around 9:00 that night.

We left the couch and chair to be picked up in August, but the place looks really empty to me.  :'(

I was dreading what came next. Everything was changing. Daniel and I had been living in that same tiny apartment for three years, and we had hung out all of freshmen year. We were Danthony, but it was time to go our separate ways. I thought about how much he's been there for me the past four years. We had decided to live together on a whim. It was only a few months into freshmen year that we awkwardly agreed to find an apartment, but it couldn't have worked out better. Daniel knows how to make things happen and enjoy every moment of life, even when you're stuck in Kirksville. He called me out when I was bullshitting and tolerated a lot more than he needed to. If it weren't for him, I doubt I would have enjoyed my college experience at all. After grueling classes and frustrating minimum wage jobs, I could always count on him to be there to remind me of what's important. We always visited one another over the summer, and I know I'll see him for many years to come. Yet, closing the door to #5 felt very final. After that, it was a pretty much wordless goodbye. We knew how we felt, and we knew this wasn't the end. It was a beginning.

I kept my composure as I pulled away from Pierce Street and took one last drive by Truman's campus. I made note of how much things have changed since I first stepped into that small corner room on the top floor of Centennial Hall four years ago. And I drove on. It wasn't until the lights of Kirksville were in my rearview mirror that I started to cry.

To be continued...