There is No Such Thing as a Last Hurrah

"...She's on her way out.

We all are. Act accordingly." - The Departed

Today at lunch I received a text message from Sweeney telling me tonight would be his last in Ann Arbor. End of an era, right? We have been talking about some mythical last hurrah since January 2010. It started with, "Well this is the last hurrah before track season starts ramping up." Then it was, "Well, this is the last hurrah before I go home for the summer and you move out of Z15 for good." Fast forward to December 2010, "Well this is the last hurrah before you graduate."The pattern was obvious and unavoidable. I know it's probably cliche for a recent college grads to think they could write a book about their experiences, but I bet we could write a novel solely based on the last hurrahs. 

Today seemed a little different at first, though. We are now alumni of the University of Michigan. Tomorrow Sweeney moves all of his belongings from Z15 (now Hotel Arch). Tomorrow I travel to South Bend to find an apartment for the fall. We didn't go out and drink at the bars or throw a huge party in the back yard of Z15 today. Just had dinner and a few beers with Saint and Joe. They went to the bars, but I had to go home and get ready for tomorrow's day trip. For a while I was bummed about leaving early, but by the time I got home I realized that the last hurrah really hadn't ended. It probably never will. During my 4.5 years of study at the University of Michigan, I was very privileged to have some very good friends. I consider three of these friends to be my brothers. Sweeney, Craig and Ryan have become part of my family. I would fight to the death for those guys. I have realized that there is no such thing as an end for us even as we grow up. This was evidenced two weekends ago when Sweeney and I made a trip to Chicago. We crashed at Ryan's place in the city, and even though those two have had their differences in the past it was a damn good time. We will definitely be hitting up Chicago again and will definitely be adding Craig to the group once his track season is over (which will be ending with a National Championship on Saturday).

Now that I've gotten past the whole end of an era/last hurrah issue I have noticed a lot of big things have happened in the last 6 or 7 months. I graduated from the University of Michigan College of Engineering. I moved back home for the first time since the summer of 2008.  I was accepted to the Law School at the University of Notre Dame. Does this create any internal conflict for me? Not really, if you know me at all. 

Being at home allowed me to see Kelsey, my little sister, captain her Little Caesar's AAA hockey team to the national championship game. It was heartbreaking to see them lose. I also saw Kelsey captain (and goaltend) her lacrosse team to a fifth consecutive league championship and a state semi-final. Another heartbreaking loss, but I couldn't be more proud of the kid. She graduated a few weeks back, and will be heading to YALE to play D-1 college hockey. Talk about outshining her big brother. I'm happy for her and all of her accomplishments, but her graduation really has made me look back at where I was 5 years ago. I'm a very different person than the kid I was five years ago, and I can expect that pretty much everyone my age can say the same. If you can't, then you might want to take a look in the mirror. You might be an adult at 18, but you still have a long ways to go. I know I still do, too. I think the words of my coach, the whole title of this blog thing, rings especially true for people my age. There is always something we can be better at or do better in. As my friends and I move away from Arch Street, I think we will all continue to get better every day in whatever our true callings are. One thing I know for sure, though, is that I could not have had a better time in Ann Arbor/ Z15 / Hotel Arch and I can thank all the great people I have met for all of the many experiences that have helped me grow to who I am today.

Wow, that got away from me a bit at the end. Just one more thing to get better at.