CARL ZIELINSKI
Gargoyle senior editor
Posted Thursday, May 29, 2008

IT'S ABOUT TIME. I’ve waited five long years for this moment. I’m finally out of this place.

Not that the bizarre heating and peeling walls aren’t enticing. Not that the disease-ridden lounge isn’t the most comfortable place ever, or the endlessly unsanitary kitchen isn’t the best place ever to cook food. That’s not the point here.

What is the point, you ask? That’s a good question. I’m not entirely sure. My feelings about leaving Uni are very mixed.

On the one hand, I’m leaving all the luxurious amenities stated above. On the other, I’m saying goodbye to the place and the people I’ve come to know and trust for most of my teenage years.

On the whole, I guess, this year has been pretty good. I didn’t contract any life-threatening illnesses, I got into my top choice for college, and I didn’t fail calculus. I discovered the excellence that is Alice in Chains. I rekindled my borderline-unhealthy love for Barack Obama.

Looking back on this year, I realized that I managed to step outside of my normal life several times. I auditioned for (and got into, no less) three Uni shows, something I had never even thought of attempting in past years. In doing so, I managed to not freeze with stage fright, as was my custom in past years.

All the same, I definitely was a little bit crippled from my time at Uni. From being around the same 60-odd people every day in every class, I only got to know a small, select group of friends. The number of people I know who don't go to Uni is minute, to say the least. Having a job that brings me into contact with Centennial and Central people corrects this somewhat, but my friends outside of Uni are still very small in number.

So, I guess what matters now is what I’m going to do in the future. As to that, I’m pretty much up the creek without a paddle, as I have absolutely no clue what I want to do with my life. I suppose I might figure that out in college, but that doesn’t stop me from being worried about it now.

Now that I’m being taken far away from dreary central Illinois and a certain lab school there, I’m reminded of some Rammstein lyrics:

Denn wenn euch auch viele Jahre vereinen
einst werden sie wie Minuten euch scheinen
(For even if you are united by many years
one day they will seem like minutes to you)

And so it seems to me. I still vaguely remember my subbie retreat and Cutting Edge. I can still see my first cross country race, as well as my first 5K. I recall distinctly the first time that I realized how terrible Uni dances are.

I guess that what I’m trying to say is that even though I have some beefs with Uni, I’m not going to dwell on them. I can’t think of a place where I would have rather gone to high school.