Monday, March 17, 2008 A Slow Painful Breakup By Elisse Catalan
AS graduation day nears, I feel like I am suffering from the world’s worst breakup. There is a sense of impending separation, where intolerable pain is imminent and unavoidable. Life as a free and happy undergraduate is metaphorically my love. With graduation just around the corner, I am well aware that I’m breaking up with my love sooner than i hope I would.
The last four years provided me priceless learning in a stable and accepting environment, surrounded by supportive and loving family and friends. There were endless experiences, opportunities and knowledge gained in college that will be with me forever. Words can not express how amazing college has been for me, and the mere thought of my college life ending pierces my heart.
I realized that the end is forthcoming when the car I have been using in college was sold. That trusty old car has been an important part of my college life. It served me well for five full years, making college smooth sailing for me. It was with me in good and bad days, through happy and sad moments and occasions in between. The day the car was sold seemed like the end of an era, of a significant period in my life that I can never go back to.
That era is coming to an end. With the car gone, everything seems daunting like the simple thought of not seeing my classmates, teachers and schoolmates as often. Although schooling has awfully become a routine, it provided me a sense of familiarity that brought comfort. The eventual loss of this familiarity will definitely not be easy to deal with.
In the school corridors, my batchmates are seen running after teachers for signatures. The sight of people rushing to and from offices to settle their final obligations is fairly normal and necessary. Everybody is in a rush to finish all the requirements as soon as possible. I try to look past the frenzy of it all and focus on tying up loose ends with friends and creating valuable and unforgettable memories with them. I make it a point that my love and trust will be with my friends even after we leave this school’s walls. Whatever happens in the near or distant future, I yearn for them to still be with me. And vice versa.
College seems to be the last nest before going to the real world--the preparatory school to flying, surviving and soaring high to achieve the farthest of our dreams. Leaving it is a necessary heartbreak, a rite of passage to the so-called real world.
A few more days are left before graduation day. As each day unfolds, I am reminded of how my heart is gradually and painfully breaking. The slowest heartbreak one must endure. Graduation day will be the culmination of the shedding of blood, sweat and tears. But at the same time, it will be the day my heart will break completely. My life as a free and happy undergraduate is over.
(Elisse is a graduating nursing student in a local university.)
