Lifetime Achievement Award

Finals week is always my favorite week of the semester. "Is Cris deluded?" you ask. No. Quite the opposite. Consistently, for eight glorious semesters, finals week has been the most fun week of the semester because that's when the best hanging out is done. No matter that we all have ridiculously large tests to be studying for, (well, not we all, my 5 hour semester is turning out quite nicely for me during finals, and only throwing one my way on Friday,) we know it will be a long time before we have these chances to play again, so we make every minute count.

Last night, after organizing our own, very successful mind you, midnight breakfast at IHOP, some of us came back to our house to hang out further into the night...er...morning. It seemed like a good idea to turn on one of the music channels on cable as background music, and then it seemed like a really good idea to start playing The Game of Life at around 2 in the morning. I had never played The Game of Life, but given that we are all about to graduate from college in 3 short days and move on to "the real world" (except not really, we had 3 who are going to grad school, one who will be student teaching, and me, who is escaping the real world to live in Brazil for a year or two) it seemed like a good idea to get some practice on what real life is like through a board game.

I won, but that's rather insignificant. It took us an hour and a half to finish, (yes, Mom, 3:30 am during finals. Gasp!) and that hour and a half was some of the most fun I have had this semester. In addition to winning, I also won the Lifetime Achievement Award, discovered a Solution to Pollution, and invented a toy. My life turned out rather nicely if you ask me, and all while driving a little red car with my husband in the front seat.

All this fun we've been having just makes the quickly-approaching graduation ceremony on Saturday less and less exciting and more and more looming. As excited as I am about what God has in store for my future, I'm not ready to let go of this place that has been my home for the last four years.

Pulling from one the greatest television show of all time (tied with Arrested Development, of course) I now leave you with "Farewell Bayside," the graduation theme from Saved by the Bell's Bayside High School. Although I may not have spent time at the Max, and I think I went to one ACU football game ever, and most definitely never went on a double date, Zack, Kelly, Lisa, Jessie, Screech, and Slater sum it all up pretty perfectly for me:

It seems like only yesterday we started,
But soon we'll put away our books and pens.
We'll go on with our lives once we have parted,
But how can we say farewell to our friends?

The double dates, the parties, and the dances,
Crammin' for a midterm until three.
The football games, the Max, and the romances,
Soon Bayside will be just a memory.

Our four years here have all become unraveled,
And so our high school story finally ends.
But years from now, no matter where we've traveled,
We'll all look back and think about our friends.
We'll all look back and think about our friends.

Um now if you thought any part of me was serious in posting those lyrics, I encourage you to introduce yourself to me and get a grip. :) I am, however, dreading the goodbyes that have already begun and am predicting right now that this is only the first of many "I can't believe it's over" posts. Happy finals and cheers to you until next time!