Officially Done

I am so done with undergraduate life.

I am done memorizing lecture notes and spitting them back out on tests. I am done working jobs where people think that having a test the next day is a legitimate excuse for not showing up for their shift.

I am done living with people whose favorite pastimes are playing Rock Band, Mario Kart, Dungeons and Dragons, and Magic. (Are we still in fourth grade?). But I am also done being around people whose weekends start on Thursday night, when they get blackout drunk and throw beer bottles off of their balconies. I am done with people who always assume that “maintenance will clean it up.” I am done washing other people’s dirty cups and shot glasses and silverware and plates (which are all piled together in our kitchen sink, submerged in stagnant, murky gray water). I am done vacuuming other people’s potato-chip crumbs up off of our common room carpet, done digging their hair wads out of our shower, and done wiping our kitchen table free of their shot glass rum-rings and spilled salsa stains.

I am done using calling cards and having an answering service that holds a maximum of three messages. I am done waiting for “campus shuttles” to run on their specific days, at their specific times, to their specific (and limited) places so I can get anywhere off-campus without pitifully begging a friend (or more often, my only car-owning suitemate) for a ride. I am done being forced to pay inflated campus-food prices to use up my fake-money Declining Dollars.

But I am also done riding side-car on my parents’ health insurance. I am done having my meals cooked for me when I don’t feel like cooking them myself. I am done working for an employer who cannot afford to fire me because she would be unable to find anyone to work in my place. I am done living in housing someone else is paying for.

I am done living within walking distance of at least twenty-five familiar friendly faces. I am done watching movies with a friend every-other-night. I am done finding intramural sports, a masters swim program, and a state-of-the-art athletic center literally ten minutes away from my bedroom. And as much as I hate to admit it, I’m probably done wearing sweatpants and T-shirts every-other day of the week.

I’m very, very done. And I’m also about to begin.