Keep Holding On

Fall semester: Done. Football season: Over. Finals: Non-existent.

College is rounding the bend. I can see the end coming. I am clinging as tightly as I can to this semester to prevent what is certain to come.

I have refused to evacuate the city of Gainesville for the last four days, despite the fact that I have been done with school. I have been sitting on my couch with my roommate, Benny, watching Christmas movies and TiVoed episodes of Law & Order. I have frequented midtown specials. 22 oz Coors and a platter of fried food never tasted as good as when I am bundled up without a care in the world.

Today, Balsam candle burning on the coffee table, Silver Bells playing on Pandora, Charlie napping between two snuggie-clad roomies, rain sloshing on the road outside…winter is here. The Christmas spirit is settling in on GF-1. We couldn’t be happier about it.

We have managed to entertain ourselves somehow with rousing games of Monopoly and Puppy Chow and Sunny drinking games before formals, but this can’t go on forever. Eventually, I will have to pack up the yellow Mustang and make the long trek west on I-10 to Navarre. Good things wait there too. Like smiling faces and wagging tails and real food and Christmas decorations (fingers crossed).

But for now, it’s Gainesville. College. Fall. For a few more days, I am going to cling to this right of passage. Because when I leave this time, I only get to come back one more time.