Don't Run From the Inevitable

So I haven't been on a run in two weeks. It's depressing. But with final papers, exams and the aforementioned graduation hanging over my like Thor's hammer I haven't had much time. So, in honor of the running drought, this post is going to have little to do with "running." I might allude to the act of running, but probably only when I talk about running away from things that scare me. Things like graduation.

I shouldn't be too worried, actually. I'm moving to New York City a few weeks after graduation and someone has actually agreed to pay me to do work (exciting, I know). Better yet, someone's going to pay me to do exactly what I wanted to do with my degree. I bet there aren't too many people who can say that just two weeks after graduation. So what am I scared of? I don't know actually. It might have all started when my friend Alexis told me her human development professor called the period after college "the most lonely period of the human life cycle." Now that doesn't sound like too much fun, does it?

Photo by www.theadventurous500.com

But it's not even that. I like changes of pace, learning new things and growing as a person. The few years after college provide opportunities for all of that. But part of me can't help but think about what I'm leaving behind, so I've decided to stop looking at it that way. Instead of running away from the idea of graduation I'm going to start running towards it. Nothing I've learned in college--about life or academics--is leaving me. I'll always have the friendships I've made, regardless of where I'm living or where my friends have relocated to. I'll always have the memories and the realizations.

So instead of rejecting graduation as an "end" that I'm not ready for, I'm going to accept it as a stepping stone--which is probably how anyone BUT a soon-to-be college graduate views it anyway. Now, more than ever, I've begun to realize the importance of life's constants. Family, close friends, and yeah, even running will always be a part of me. They'll always be around to experience that next step in life with. So yes, I'm graduating college in one week. I'll run places I've never run before, but it will still be running. And that's how I'm going to think of it for a while.