The College Journals: Filling The Pages Of Your Book
You’ve been writing the pages of this book for a long time. Your parents created the title page for you, and left the rest up to your liking, and since then you’ve been writing the granddaddy story of them all.
For 18 long years, we filled our books with thousands of pages, countless memories, and a couple of edits along the way. We filled it with Sundays at church. We filled it with 8 am start times, and 5pm practices. We filled those crumpled pages edge to edge with the best life had to offer at the moments. And sure a few of the pages leave us in rags, before everyone loved the comeback story in the next chapter. Thousands of days had passed, and many memories had gone, before we ever stepped foot on a college campus. And while they were truly great memories, college has a way of one upping the last 18 years of life, and since it has only four years to do so, there’s no time to waste.
Some of my fondest memories are not the nights I spent out on the town, but the ones I spent in a house. For years home was a stable place, a starting and ending point. And in college the same can be said. Homes, or houses for the realist, will be the backdrop for your grandest nights and meaning conversations. It won’t be the bar, or the club, or that late night mexican restaurant. It’ll be the four walls and a roof that conjure up the nights to tell your children about.
I remember one of my first weekends back for sophomore year, an impromptu “I haven’t seen you in three months” gathering took place at our newly minted cottage. At first it was just a few of us. Two girls from my dorm, my roommates, and a stereo. But then some more people from my dorm came. Then some of my baseball friends. Then even ole Salzberg showed up to the party. We sat around and talked, and reminisced on last year. All of that couldn’t have possibly happened in the mere 300 days of freshmen year. But indeed it did. All the fun, the talks, the fallouts, the petty arguments, and endless laughs. It happened. All of it.
We never wanted that night to end. We didn’t want time to tick on. We just wanted ot be there. Right there.
And just like that...priceless moment.
College memories are something very special in the grand scheme of life. It’s the point where everything is great, while nothing is certain. It’s where anything can happen....but also everything can just fizzle. Relish in it, because as a sophomore I am starting to realize that this place, with these people, is something that will never happen again. I’ll never spend late nights on the town with these people ever again. I’ll never have late night little talks with hat girl, or go crazy at a college baseball game, or just be here. Guys, just being here is special.
Being on this campus, at this time, with the world at your feet...some of us didn’t get here. Some of our books will never be filled. They’ll stay half written forever. They’ll never pen the unforgettable nights, or the little conversations. They’ll never walk across another stage, or shake another hand. So bare the gift. Take the chance to fill your pages with the greatest tales ever told, because some of us didn’t make it.
See you Saturday,
EICHEL | @EichelGDavis
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