“The Big Picture”

They say all good things must end.

But in my last semester here at YSU, I wish it wasn't so.

I've found myself fighting pangs of nostalgia the likes of which I've never tussled with before, and, for the first time in my 22 years of life, I fear it may be a fight I could lose.

When I was younger, I put graduation on a pedestal.

"I can't wait to get out of this town" is easy to say when you know you'll be there for a while.

But now that graduation is on my horizon, I feel as if I wished life away, and, oh, what I wouldn't give to live parts of it over again.

Over the holiday break, I realized how far apart I had grown from my high school friends — so far in fact, that when one of them bought me a Christmas present, I was truly taken aback by it.

I, of course, was empty-handed.

Worse than that was realizing how out of touch I had become with my own brother, who lives in Columbus.

Dave is my only sibling. Until about age 13, we rarely played a video game unless both of us were present. I spent a portion of my senior year of high school at dive bars playing drums in his band so I could spend more time with him.

But we grew apart as we got older, and I know we were never as close as we could've been. I realized how true that was when, this Christmas, I hadn't the slightest clue what to get him.

I have only one brother, and he needed only one present, and I was still stumped.

Oh, what I wouldn't give to play some "Major League Baseball Featuring Ken Griffey Jr." for Super Nintendo with him again.

I started to wonder if all of my college friendships would end up like my high school friendships and my bond with my big brother: nostalgic shells of their former selves.

The nature of companionship can be very fleeting. One fight can tear down the walls of friendship forever, and a little distance can make your best friends seem like pen pals.

If you're reading this during lunch in Kilcawley, look at the person you're sitting with. Chances are, you won't be as good of friends when the realities of life take you in different directions.

But the nature of everything can be fleeting. Most awesome things in life don't last forever, and, if they did, they probably wouldn't be as awesome. We'd take their longevity for granted and be complacent with their awesomeness.

So we need to appreciate and cherish every moment for what it is: a memory that will shape us forever. We must live life as if there is no peak — but instead slowly rising hills that dip only if we let them.

I like to think I could die one day on my highest hilltop, and, as I sit there, know I reserved a part of my heart for all of the people and all of the places that influenced my life, even if they are just memories.

Although at times it may seem like the beginning of the end, I'll know it's just the end of the beginning.