Finals Week/ Final Weeks

We are in Finals Week here at the college. They run a Sunday to Saturday schedule which really confuses me, but anyway, here we are. The last week or so has been total madness in the library. Every desk is taken, every computer desk full. The printer is constantly pumping out papers, last minute research and, probably, summer vacation plans. Laptops and cell phones are plugged into every available outlet, and sometimes even the unavailable ones. (The photocopier is usually the thing that gets unplugged. Poor old dinosaur.) Piles of books and paper everywhere. It's a madhouse.

As busy as the library is, the campus has been pretty quiet. With the warm weather, people have been out of doors soaking up the sunshine, laughing, ignoring the work they needed to do. But this week, everyone is in study mode. Nose to the grindstone and all that.

And for some reason, I've been feeling sentimental. Maybe some of it is remembering that a year ago, I graduated. (I still have trouble believing I did it. And that I gave a speech to a bazillion people, too.) I've been trying to chat with all the student workers I've gotten to know over the past year. I find it hard to believe (even about myself) that I've made such friends over one year. There is J. who works in my office. She is a marathon runner and always has extraordinarily nice things to say about me. She can lift my spirits on a horrible day. E., J., M., and A. who all work in Interlibrary Loan. I've gone to dance recitals like a proud mama, harassed them like a sister, talked & giggled about boys like a girlfriend, checked up on their school work like teacher and just...sorta fell in love with them. I can't even finish--there are so many people I might not see again and it hurts to think of it.

And then I remember, I'm almost done too.

::gulp::