Perhaps the hardest thing I did in my four years at Carleton was pack up my car to leave.

I don’t mean this metaphorically. I mean it physically. It took me about an hour to pack my trunk up alone. My trunk is packed so tight that I can barely close the door. My backseats are piled up to the headrests, and my passenger seat is full too. Every so often, I have to unravel the cord to my lava lamp from my shifter. I don’t know how I’m going to make it home like this.

Ok, fine, maybe I do mean it a little bit metaphorically. Carleton has been good to me. And if the head of the alumni association has any say in the matter, I will (apparently) be good to it in return. Tough as it would be to stay, it’s tough to leave.
I will resist the tempation to go on at length about how great college was, or about entering the real world, or about leaving friends behind, or about how Carleton is not a bubble but a series of vectors. I will spare you the abstraction, because nothing I can say–especially in this venue–can possibly make sense of it. If you’re not there in the present, you’re just not there.

So, I will brave my way into the future, as I always have. College is over, and I’ve got a lot more living to do. That’s that.

Just know that my car is packed.

Posted on June 12th, 2006 by Lee
Filed under: Uncategorized