Four years and a semester (including all of my summers) full of classes have attributed to my time here at the best kept secret in Texas. With graduation right around the corner, I cannot explain the emotions I am feeling right now. All the faces and many places this university has taken me has made such an impact in shaping the person I have become and who I will be in my career. I will be sad to leave the first place I have ever called home since I moved away from hometown. Knowing that in a short time I will be packed up and moving away to a new place with people I don’t know very well, excites me and also kills me inside.

Tarleton has given me so many things, besides just a degree. I have met some of my life-long friends, future bridesmaids, I gained a sisterhood I would have never known with Sigma Alpha, met my possible future co-workers with Tarleton’s collegiate soil judging team, met my boyfriend and gained my first ever work family with JTAC News and the rest of Student Publications. With Sigma Alpha I have my two wonderful littles, a grand-little and countless other sorority sisters who constantly brighten my days and make my long class days, study- sessions, and chapter meetings just a little more bearable.

My Student Publications family also has a big piece of my heart, with our semi-frequent $3.99 chicken fried steak dinner nights at Agave. Even with all our differences ya’ll have each made it that much harder for me to apply to those adult jobs because I don’t want to leave just yet. Ya’ll have taught me many life skills including how to open up more and how to properly fill out a ‘While you were out’ sheet!

I’ve learned to live with girls who weren’t my actual sisters, some who weren’t that great at being roommates, and some who were amazing at being roommates. I’ve learned to be a morning person, because a little kindness in the morning can change someone’s entire day, and that even if I am super quiet when someone else is asleep, they won’t always give me the same courtesy (it happens, right?).

Some things I won’t be able to unlearn like arriving to campus an hour or so early to ensure I get a parking spot on campus, to arranging my classes in such a way that I am sure to be able to catch free lunch at one of the four churches across from heritage park that were kind enough to feed students on a weekly basis (and never being able to tell the sweet people serving us ‘Thank You’ enough).

Like anyone else I have had my bad days and there have been things that have thrown a wrench in my assignments or plans for my future/graduation if we are being completely honest. I’ve wanted to quit everything a move back home more times than I can count thankfully, I didn’t and it’s a good thing I stayed even after changing my degree from environmental science to wildlife sustainability and ecosystem sciences with an emphasis in soil science. I even picked up a biology minor my LAST semester, but ‘minor’ details right? Even with all the stresses of being a science major and taking close to the maximum amount of hours I have had more good days than bad days.

After all this I’m not sure what I will do without stressing over writing a 10+ page lab report for one of my soil science classes or giving a presentation that I almost/definitely forgot to finish or forgetting about my office hours.

What will I do without my favorite people constantly stopping by my house to say hello or asking me to go hiking on the weekends with our dogs? Or even clearing my schedule to attend a Homecoming or Greek event on and off campus. What will I ever do with any of the free time I might have? Binge watch popular shows on Netflix, read a book that has NOTHING to do with class work, or go for a long walk with my two dogs? Maybe I will get more sleep and be able to work out more regularly (wishful thinking)!

Thank you Tarleton for the memories it has always been the little things that have impacted me the most. For that, I am thankful for the “adultier” me I am becoming even if it means earlier bedtimes and earlier mornings to get to work.

One thing I will always have is a [now] much longer list of misspellings and mispronunciations of my first name!

Farewell Tarleton, I’m sure I will see you in the near future!

All photos courtesy of Horizon Exposures.

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