3am trip to Dennys
The three of us sat silent in the car, waiting for the light to turn green. Flickering street lamps illuminated the otherwise dark and deserted road. It was almost poetic, how we were waiting at a wide intersection, with dim blurry nothingness as far as the eye could see.
A year has come to a close, and here we were, three graduate students clinging desperately to the last remaining minutes before tomorrow arrived. Tomorrow meant Jay had to find a way to pack his two electric pianos into his car and drive 8 hours back home to Chicago. For Ritesh, it meant watching people he had finally gotten to know leave Syracuse, and having to make new friends again. For me, it meant the closing of another chapter of life to step into the world without the safety net of school.
It all seemed anti-climactic, ending the semester with just the handful of us watching the Advertising program graduates getting sloshed and teary eyed. Somehow our program just didn't have that have cohesive bond, but we were sad all the same now that the year was really finished. Deep inside I wanted the whole group of us, our whole program, sitting around a bonfire, singing songs we knew, sharing jokes, reminiscing the year gone by. That was how I wanted to close my chapter, the same way I wanted my high school and college chapters to close. But the bonfire never happened then, and it wouldn't happen now. Most of the people in our program had already gone their separate ways. And even if they had stayed, few would have come to hang out. Our program was never really close, and it was only in the past few months a few of us really got together and bonded.
If only there was more time; deeper friendships could be established, conversations fleshed out. There were places to be seen, stories to be told. But not this time, and no matter how much we tried to stave off tomorrow, tomorrow was already here.
When the light changed, we zoomed down the wide open road, the three of us contemplating what we could have done differently had we known the end would come so fast. It’s good to know although we’d be going our separate ways, our roads will most likely intersect one way or another. Til then, my story in Syracuse has officially come to a close.
A year has come to a close, and here we were, three graduate students clinging desperately to the last remaining minutes before tomorrow arrived. Tomorrow meant Jay had to find a way to pack his two electric pianos into his car and drive 8 hours back home to Chicago. For Ritesh, it meant watching people he had finally gotten to know leave Syracuse, and having to make new friends again. For me, it meant the closing of another chapter of life to step into the world without the safety net of school.
It all seemed anti-climactic, ending the semester with just the handful of us watching the Advertising program graduates getting sloshed and teary eyed. Somehow our program just didn't have that have cohesive bond, but we were sad all the same now that the year was really finished. Deep inside I wanted the whole group of us, our whole program, sitting around a bonfire, singing songs we knew, sharing jokes, reminiscing the year gone by. That was how I wanted to close my chapter, the same way I wanted my high school and college chapters to close. But the bonfire never happened then, and it wouldn't happen now. Most of the people in our program had already gone their separate ways. And even if they had stayed, few would have come to hang out. Our program was never really close, and it was only in the past few months a few of us really got together and bonded.
If only there was more time; deeper friendships could be established, conversations fleshed out. There were places to be seen, stories to be told. But not this time, and no matter how much we tried to stave off tomorrow, tomorrow was already here.
When the light changed, we zoomed down the wide open road, the three of us contemplating what we could have done differently had we known the end would come so fast. It’s good to know although we’d be going our separate ways, our roads will most likely intersect one way or another. Til then, my story in Syracuse has officially come to a close.
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