May 29, 2009
BERKELEY -
I always look forward to the month of May because it means summer is just right around the corner and the weather begins to cooperate with beach season. As a senior, this last semester is rather bittersweet since graduation marks the end of our undergraduate careers in college. I'm actually staying an extra semester to complete my studies, but most of my friends have earned their diplomas and are moving on to the next phase of their lives, wherever that may be. I've decided that staying longer in school is not such a bad thing with the current economic situation and job market--I feel that many students would rather stay in school instead of enter the "real world" at this current time.
But I will most certainly miss all my friends and especially my amazing roommates I've had the utmost pleasure of living with for three years. It just won't be the same going out without them...I'll only feel very old and out of place! I'm definitely looking forward to the upcoming fall and going to all the hockey games, but it will be quite different cheering from the sidelines instead of being on the field. It hasn't really hit me that I'm completely done with hockey, but I think that'll change once season comes around and fall competition begins.
Since most of my housemates have graduated and only my roommate Caro [Carolina Bistue] and I remain for an extra semester, we spent our last few days in Berkeley packing up and moving to our new place a few blocks down. It's funny with our team because we tend to cycle and live in the same few houses within a very close radius. We'll be sharing a room that our previous teammates lived in this past year, and living with brand new housemates--a few of the women's crew team members.
It's sad to leave our old house we've called "the Palm" after three years, but change is inevitable and I'm looking forward to living in a much newer house. As much as I loved our old house, it was really getting a little too old...I mean, when it starts to rain inside and the sink clogs and backs up every other day, you know it's time to move.
Our moving process was actually pretty amusing since we decided to do all the moving ourselves with no help. With the help of my mom driving at a snail's pace, Caro and I hung halfway out the back windows holding onto her mattress on the roof praying it wouldn't fly off. Then we got creative with my bed frame rolling it down Dwight Way on a skateboard during rush hour traffic. As ridiculous as that sounds, it actually worked pretty well and saved us the back troubles of lifting. It was pretty embarrassing crossing the busy intersection with all the commuters in their cars staring at us and thinking what the heck these girls were doing. After a busy moving day, we got everything done and settled into our new, much smaller room.
My summer will be spent back home in Vancouver hoping to get some sort of job or internship while enjoying the beautiful weather. For the first time I'll have a longer summer since I don't have to be back in Berkeley for preseason, something I won't be missing anytime soon!
