Last weekend my friend and I drove back up to Amherst to watch the class of 2009 earn their canes, commence and join the rest of us in this horrible economy. In fact, even the "Amherst bubble" was cracked by the financial meltdown - no dessert at the post-graduation luncheon, no titanium Amherst water bottles. damn...
As I cheered my friends on, enjoyed President Marx's long (yet inspired) speech and chatted with other alumni I kept on going back to my own graduation. Sitting in that hot garbage bag of a black gown I remember reminding myself to savor the moment to fully enjoy one of the best days of my life thus far. So much has changed since that hot day last May.
When President Marx gave me my degree and shook my hand, he asked, "Are you ready?" And I said, "I hope so!" I had no clue a year later I would be coming out of my first year teaching getting ready to take another academic plunge. I had just made it out of that academic/social pressure cooker and was so ready to get out.
I called a good friend while up at the alma mater and was telling her just how beautiful the town is and how I couldn't believe I never noticed it before, and she said, "Thats because we were too busy hating it." True, and now a year later, I realize that there will never be another time that my best friends will be literary a 2 minute walk away.
My friends are in the Netherlands, China, Chicago, Boston, LA and (thank God) in Brooklyn. We made it - a year, an Ikea funished apartment, a job, and infinite transitions and changes later I'm still here.
I hope those newest Amherst alums are ready. Believe it or not, it only gets better. Even in the wackest of economies.
