Time

And in the blink of an eye, my junior year of college has come and gone. This year has been filled with laughs, tears, and a good amount of banana ice cream, but overall it has just gone way too fast.

Feels like just yesterday I was this tan

I recall a very vivid memory of sitting at my desk in my freshman year dorm, it was early fall, right after classes had started. I was sitting on my handmade Union Jack pillow, trying to make a more enticing place to work by covering the uncomfortable black plastic chair I was provided, and had a blanket wrapped around me. With my first sweater of the season on, I was working on writing a letter to a pen pal that I have in the UK. I recall the exact moment that I looked up from my letter, at the fake fall leaf garland that Kate, my roommate at the time, and I had hung around our door and I thought of the future, and how I would be here for the next four years.

I am now sitting on the first piece of adult furniture that I have ever purchased, a white Ikea slipcovered couch,  in my apartment, my roommate Camila packing her kitchen tools in the background, and cannot imagine that I only have one semester left at the University of Minnesota before my undergraduate degree is over.

Like the past two years, I will again be venturing into the field of hospitality to finish my third and final year of being a CA, community advisor, resident advisor, resident assistant, RA, the names all mean the same, and I will be making sure that my 78 residents are as happy and healthy as possible.

Working in a dorm, or in my case residence apartment, has taught me so much over the past years, and not just how best to remove a puke stain or convince a resident that they need to call the Gopher Chauffeur to get back home, but the importance of a simple hello or asking them if they're really "fine" or if they are just saying that. I don't exactly know what possessed me to take on this job for a third year, as the pay is not nearly enough to justify the hours I have spent on aspects of this job, but there is something to be said for a good resident who appreciates what you do, even if you don't understand their pop culture references

Third week in Centennial Hall last year I had some amazing door art that made its way back throughout the year. 

I move out in two weeks, only to return in mid-August for year 3 of CA training, but only time will tell if I am truly ready to move on from this campus that I have called home for the past three years.