looking back

A few short weeks from now will be the 6 year mark that Brittany and I moved into our dorm together at Jones. What a momentous moment. I didn't know at the time how my life was about to change. How I wish I would've laid back and soaked up those days rather than rushing them. The day I changed from a live at home 18 year old to a 18 year old college student who was 2 hours from home stands out so clearly in my mind.
Mom rode with me in my blue car and Mr. Rick drove the truck. We were loaded down with clothes, shoes, books, back packs, food, plastic bowls, a mini fridge, comforter sets, lamps, plastic storage bins, my laptop, and of course Pooh Bear. We rode through rain the whole way there and stopped in Laurel to eat at Church's chicken. We were lost. I am so unbelievably familiar with that area now. When I pass through those streets I think back on how unfamiliar the area was.
We walked through the double glass doors at the front of Smith Hall and received the key to my room. I searched quickly at the name of my roommate and suite mates. I had requested that my lifetime friend, Brittany White, be my roommate. I was so nervous that something was going to get mixed up and I was going to be stuck with someone who I didn't know and didn't like. There was her name right there next to mine. I sighed a big breath of relief and went on into the room. Brittany arrived shortly thereafter with Mrs. Pam and Mr. John. Mrs. Pam and Mr. John have watched me grow up from kindergarten to college.
Brittany and I unpacked all our stuff, excitedly. Our Moms laughed and joked while trying to hide the tears they wiped from knowing that their baby girls were not babies anymore...and not leaving with them that day.
After our parents left we arranged the rearranged our rooms. We met our suite mates in passing that day. Brittany and I took her car and rode around campus and around the tiny town of Ellisville. Life was changing all around us.
We met so many people that year. We grew as friends and as individuals. The memories from that short year will last a lifetime. Looking back though, I wonder why we were in such a rush to leave. Midnight curfew for college students stinks. Room checks to make sure you cleaned your room made college life seem more like boarding school. But it wasn't as bad as we wanted it to seem at the time. About 2 weeks before that school year ended I moved out of the dorm and into an apartment in Laurel. I quickly acquired bills and a need for a steady job and paycheck.
I look back often at this time in my life and am so thankful for the opportunity I had. I kept my best friend of a lifetime through trials and tribulations, I found my husband, and I found the grown-up version of me attempting to peep through the child in me. I can't help but occasionally close my eyes and dream of that time in my life and wish I could go back for just a day or two.