Sunday May 11, 2003

The uber-long road back home

Only two days away from my beloved computer, and I already miss it. My move back home has taken up all of my time (and my energy). I've been lugging stuff into my room, making massive piles of crap all over the floor. Up until a couple hours ago you couldn't even see my carpet, no kidding.

There are two reasons that I can think of that it has taken me two full days to get my stuff in order:

1. I have so much damn crap that I don't know where to put it all. There's just... so much CRAP. Seriously, I can't believe the amount of crap I've acquired. I bet I own more than the average third-world family of 63. Too much crap.

2. I was given a gift... a graduation gift.

Let me tell you about this gift. Friday aftertoon I finished up working in the lab (I left smelling like rat poop. Yeah). My dad, brother, and cousin had already packed the contents of my dorm room into their trucks by the time I got off of work, so all I had to do was hop in my car and leave. I got home at about 4:00. My dad, who had gotten home before I did, took my hand as soon as I walked into the door and raced into my room. And there, right in front of the door, sat a brand new office desk with a black leather executives chair.

Holy cow.

This was my gift. My dad said to me, I know you don't want to come home and you want to stay with your friends, but we wanted to make the move back here as comfortable for you as possible. I don't know how much money they spent, but it had to be a lot.

My desk is awesome. It has a cabinet for the computer tower, four shelves for books and CDs, and a nice grey top finish. It took some finesse to get everything to fit nicely, but my room is all good now.

Tomorrow at 2:30 I'll be back at school for the commencement ceremony. All of my friends from school will be there, ready to graduate. Some of them I'll see all the time after graduation. Some of them I'll call once in a while. And others I probably won't see unless we run into each other many years from now. I'm a little sad, leaving my friends, leaving my old life...

I've become used to having friends around me all the time. In the morning my friends were singing (badly) in the next shower stall. During the day we had class together, ate lunch in the Lang Banger dining hall, and compained about our professors. At night we ordered pizza and watched cheesy tv shows. I couldn't even pee without having people around. And now I'm back at home finding myself with social withdrawal.

I know I'll get used to, and even learn to love, my new life. It will probably take a little while, But I know I'll get there. Says Thomas Wolfe: To lose the earth you know, for greater knowing; to lose the life you have, for greater life; to lose the friends you loved, for greater loving; to find a land more kind than home, more large than the earth.

That's my mission. And it starts tomorrow at 2:30.