Last day of school!!!!

The title of this post pretty much sums up my day, but I'll elaborate.  I have to preface this whole thing by saying up front - I'm not done yet.  I don't officially graduate until December 19th.  Technically, I have some scheduled appointments with my professors next week where they will try to freak me out with incredibly long, and multi-faceted essay questions intended to make me recall every tiny fact that they, personally, found relevant over this last semester.  Wonderful.  Not that I expected to experience anything very different today just because it was my last day of class at BYU, but I wasn't really sure how I'd feel.  It turned out to be a really great roller coaster ride (I love those!!!).  It started when I left my apartment this morning.  For some reason I felt giddy.  So much so that I started to skip.  Yes, my friends, I skipped to class today in the freezing cold weather.  Apparently I was pretty excited to be done.  

My first class was Italian Renaissance history.  Loved it!  We discussed Machiavelli's "The Prince," which I had serious issues with for the first 40 pages until finally getting to the good stuff.  After my peers spouted lots of opinions, and tried to incorporate gospel principles into the discussion -  because that's what we like to do here at BYU (hahaha!!! that usually turns out to be thoroughly entertaining, and often incredibly ridiculous depending on the subject) - my professor had us take the test, "How Machiavellian are you?"  According to the findings, I'm way too idealistic and therefore, people will walk all over me.  Good to know.  I missed the next tier by two points.  I'm demanding a recount.  I didn't understand one of the questions, and therefore, could not have possibly answered it as I should have.  And with that, the bell rang and the Italian Renaissance came to an end.

       Between that class and my LDS temples class I was studying in the JFSB building near the spiral staircase.  Excellent timing!  The Russian club was singing at the bottom of the staircase and the music reverberated beautifully to the upper floors.  I quite enjoyed the carols as well as classical pieces by Rachmaninoff.  I'll miss stuff like this - random moments when the world stands still so I can enjoy the talents/skills/hobbies of others and completely forget that I had a final to take 20 minutes later.  

       My last class was Roman History, which let out early, so I took my time walking home.  As I was nearing the South edge of campus by the Widtsoe building (which I was well acquainted with when I worked in the cancer lab there...back in the day when I still preferred science over art....seems so distant now) I got really sad that I wasn't going to randomly run into friends I have made in Vienna, or Jerusalem, or during my time on the folk dance team anymore.  Sure, I know I'll see them again somewhere, but finishing school lessens the frequency of such encounters.  After about 10 seconds of feeling sad, who should I see walking to class but my dear Jeru roomie, Katie Rencher!!!  What a pleasant surprise and what perfect timing!  After a quick update on both sides, she headed off to class, and I headed for home.  I didn't skip this time, but I definitely had a big smile on my face.  =)

       Looks like I have nothing to worry about after all.  Life goes on and good things are in store.  After I take my finals, of course...