Five Years Later

I've admitted it before - I can be a terribly nostalgic person.

So when I saw the pictures in our newspaper from this year's graduation at my high school, it made me reflect on where I am in my own life five years post high school.

I remember the high that carried me through that summer and my first semester of college. It's such a unique time in a person's life, as though there is nothing but open road in front of you. You've accomplished a big milestone, and yet there are hundreds of different directions your life could take. I remember loving that feeling that things weren't set in stone, that my life could take any number of pathways aside from pharmacy.

Not that I'm unhappy with pharmacy. On the contrary, I'm happier with this choice than I ever expected to be. But sometimes I mourn what could have been. Like Classics, or Music, or English. Those were the main others paths I considered when pre-pharmacy totally stressed me out. I still love these things, though, and they'll always be a part of my life.

But I really didn't enjoy undergrad. That was a big deflation after being so excited about college. Being a commuter student at a school where relationships seemed to be formed by the close living (as I imagine it is at most colleges), I felt like something of an outsider looking in. Graduate school has really been much more enjoyable, despite being academically harder, because I feel there are more people who are "on the same page" as me. People who's company I can see myself seeking out after school is over.

But that's enough rambling. Back to studying for midterms!