It’s 12:12 am on a Sunday night. I’ve already had 3 exams and 2 final papers and I still have one left…for the last time slot…on the very last day. Pretty much sums it up.
All I can think about is that my last OAP is in 4 days. My last exam, my last time seeing all my friends at the gym together, the last time at Ye Olde, the last party at La Cite, my last poutine. It finally came. That feeling of a too-soon nostalgia for what is right in front of me. The fear of change ? Surely I’ve surpassed this wave of oncoming mixed emotions. Yet here I am, at midnight in my too-small twin bed going to bed in my room that has spun a few too many times and has seen an equal amounts of late nights cramming for microbiology exams.
It’s what brings us all together-this longing for what hasn’t even happened yet-the anxiety over the inevitable that makes me cherish each time I walk to my friends’ apartments and laugh about something that happened in second year. I hadn’t let myself think about it much but now it has all hit me far too hard. I’m trying to be one of those people that remembers these aren’t the best days of my life yet, that the glory days are ahead of me. But laughing so hard I fall to my knees and having deep meaningful chats in dirty bar bathrooms have been some of the best memories.
McGill students love nothing more than to hate on McGill. Complaining about construction, Big Suz, lack of good food near campus and still having classes in -40C weather-we’ve got it covered. But whether we want to admit it or not, I think McGill gave us a collective sense of suffering that still brought us all closer. It’s the “being too cool for school” attitude every McGill student exudes which is both ironic and hilarious since we’re all a bunch of nerds, that gave that sense of belonging.
My undergraduate experience was nothing like I imagined it would be. I thought I’d be tailgating and going to frat parties and on a varsity team. Instead I was going out, studying in cafes and living in a city. It was almost like skipping the student life and jumping into being a yuppie. Yet simultaneously I felt as though I spent 99% of my time looking for a spot in McLennan and hopping from depanneur to depanneur looking for the mix I wanted.
Overall, I’ll miss the Pizza Madonna/Two Chow/Frite alors after a night out on St Lau, a Balcony on the 20th floor, Cafe Nomade, picnics at the parc, living right next to Mont Royal and even the overpriced depanneur near my apartment where I once paid $13 for a banana and some chocolate chips. I won’t miss constantly almost getting hit by cars or the constant construction or the death trap that is Duff Medical Building but I will leave with a heavy heart because of the people I have met and all that I have learned both in and out of the classroom.
Thank you to the people who laugh with me and cry with me and have ever shared a drink with me. To the girls who compliment me in bar bathrooms and guys who have shared 4am nights in the library with me. Cheers. May our paths cross soon and often.
COURTSNEXTSTOP 