Okay, so I will be honest, of all the columns I have written in the past two years, this is by far the hardest for me. This is the last issue of The Collegian of this school year, and therefore the last column I will be writing as an SDSU student. Yep writing that was weird.

I guess the thing to do would be to give one last piece of advice, or something right? Well, all I can think of is the well-known statement, time flies. Cheesy and not much like what I have written over my time here…okay, I will admit that I’m usually cheesy in some way. 

Now, I graduate next week, and someone told me last Monday, “Whoa, this is your last week of college!” That didn’t help. I do not want to say goodbye to SDSU. I do not want to move out of Brookings. Brookings has become a home to me, and while I am excited to move on and move to law school, parts of my heart will always be in Brookings.

People have told me that doing my undergraduate in three years is bad, or that I can’t be upset because I am choosing to leave early, but in all honesty, I am glad that I am graduating. I am ready to have completed my degree; I am just not quite ready to leave Brookings.

I think that as the summer grows nearer and the sun starts to come out again, people start to focus on the lack of things that there are to do in Brookings compared to where they are from, or they let their exhaustion from classes overtake all that SDSU is. 

I have heard many times “I’m just so tired of being here,” and don’t get me wrong, I have thought that too, I just now see that what we are tired of, we are lucky to have.

Never again will we all live within walking distance of our friends, get to work out for free, have access to the abundance of information or even have the freedoms that we have now. College is a unique time that will be over in a flash, so appreciate it. I lived in Brown hall, and did not appreciate living on the same floor as 50 other girls, but in that same year, I made memories that I will never forget.

I have spent three years in Brookings and will miss it dearly when I move south, but I also know that SDSU will still thrive while I am gone. The tailgate lots will still be full on Saturdays, the Market will still have lines a mile long every day for lunch and SDSU will continue to grow. We all make up what is the essence of this university, so we have to know to enjoy it while we are here.

Embrace the craziness, love the chaos and hold closely those midnight runs to Walmart. Brookings is a great city, even during finals week when it doesn’t seem like it. As my last column, I will say that college might not be the best years of my life, but they sure have been great years. 

I am glad that when I look back on my time at SDSU, Brookings will forever be a part of it, and I will cherish my time here for the rest of my life.

Amanda is a political science major and can be reached at 

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