Looking back on my time at UMass

It’s been four years, but it feels like four seconds

I remember pulling up to Cance Hall in late August of 2012. My dad in the driver’s seat and pretty much everything I owned in the back seat and trunk. The next chapter of my life was officially starting, and I couldn’t come to grips with it.

I’ll never forget when we got up to my freshman dorm room. He looked at me and said, “These are going to be the best four years of your life.” He was right – and now, with only weeks remaining of my time at UMass Amherst, I can’t come to grips with the fact that it’s over.

How could these four years have possibly gone by this fast? I refuse to believe that it wasn’t just yesterday I was a wide-eyed underclassman trying to figure out the inner workings of UMass. Learning how to find a table amongst hundreds of ravenous fellow students at Berk, trying to figure out any possible alternatives to going to frat houses on Thursday nights, and frantically looking for classrooms in buildings that I couldn’t locate. I’m still that young kid at heart that is amazed that the library is 8,000 stories tall.

Looking back on my time in Amherst, I never could have imagined how much of an impact this school would have on my life. UMass isn’t just a school that I spent four years at to earn a degree – it was so much more than that. Professors became role models, classmates became lifelong friends and the city became a second home. You can’t put a price tag on a place where you feel accepted, wanted and completely at ease. Well, I guess you can, but luckily UMass is a very reasonably priced university.

What will I miss most about UMass? Everything. Grinding away in the early hours of the morning in Du Bois to finish a midterm at the last minute, waking up at 7am to crack a Busch Light on Blarney morning, that first sunny spring day where everyone is out and about on southwest beach, tailgating all day for our underachieving football team. The list goes on and on. This school provided me with a laundry list of memories that I will hold on to for the rest of my days.

You know that person you have a crush that you just can’t get enough of? Sure, they get on your nerves from time to time but they always manage to reel you back in. Well, I have a big ol’ crush on UMass Amherst. Yeah, it sucked walking through the arctic wind dome that is the southwest tunnel during the dead of winter. Sure, none of were too thrilled about the police cracking down on our extracurricular activities and we all hated the fact that no matter what time of the day it was, all the washers and driers in the dorm laundry rooms were be occupied. UMass really knows how to push our buttons, but they always made up for it.

Luckily for me, I turned this crush into a full-fledged relationship, one that was four years strong and taught me more about life and myself than I ever could have dreamed. Sure, it was an open relationship with over 5,000 other people, but UMass managed to leave a life-lasting effect on each and every one of us. We will all be proud to be called UMass Amherst alumni and never forget anything that this exciting, chaotic, fulfilling, unique, wonderful place taught us.

While I knew we were going to have to go our separate ways at some point, I didn’t think it was going to happen this quickly. Feels like it was just the other day that we had our first date at Antonio’s. Now, with only limited time remaining, I’m going to cherish each and every second we have left with each other. Let’s make it count.

So long, UMass. You were everything I could have asked for and more.

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