A short story of me crying like a baby in public

I was taught a lot of things at Willamette University. How to do multiple linear regressions, that professors are real people too, and that the best college jobs hook you up with free food and/or get you outdoors. I was even informed that graduation would be simultaneously one of the most rewarding and saddest days ever, and that not going back to school the following fall would be weird.

However, no one, not a single soul, warned me about the tsunami of sorrow that would hit me at approximately 11:19pm while at the Warm August Nights. It was time to say goodbye to Robyn and Courtney, who I grew up with in Kodiak and who too, decided to attend Willamette. While saying goodbye, I had two sudden realizations.

One: my little WU babies are going back to school without me I won't get to see their smiling faces everyday. Seriously, these two, Robyn and Courtney, are my pride and joy and I'm so happy they chose Willamette because I have been able to watch them make that community a better place just in their first two years there.

Two: I will not be returning to the place into which I poured an exorbitant amount of energy during the last four years. This August, I get to do something other than prepare for another semester of school, which is a great feeling, but it seems unnatural, since the last 16 or so Augusts of my life have consisted of a back-to-school ritual.

So, with a rock band and a mosh pit in front of us, and an enormous bonfire behind us, I sobbed -- the kind of sobbing that makes your breath shaky and you think you might need an IV because of all the water loss via tears -- and hugged Robyn and Courtney and told them (not quite as eloquently) what I really wish people had drilled into my head when I was half-way through college:

Do what makes you happy. Do not feel bad saying no to anyone/anything that requests your energy but does not fill you with a sense of accomplishment or joy. Your energy is valuable and you deserve to keep some for yourself. Have fun!

Robyn and Courtney waited for hours in the graduation 

tent to save my family the best seats. Gotta love these girls.