Ah, the infamous goodbye column. This will be the last time my name and crappy mug shot will appear in the pages of the Technician, the last time I will eagerly await forum letters to no avail and the last time I will remember I have a column due the day before it runs. Alas, I must admit fair readers, I will miss it. More so than all of that, as really the Technician just added one more consistent deadline to the sea of deadlines we call college, I will miss my undergraduate experience. I did a lot of things as a part of the Wolfpack, and even if I one day return to my soon-to-be alma mater, I know that the feelings I have toward the University cannot be replicated.
During Homecoming this year, my roommate and I ran through the parking lots of Carter-Finley in an effort to make it into the stadium before our seats were given away, stealing a Krispy Kreme or two off of wayward tailgaters as we went.
Once, during an all-night study extravaganza, I changed all of the lyrics in The Sound of Music to match N. C. State. Think: “I am 19 going on 20, honey I’m not naive. Frat boys I meet they tell me I’m sweet, but surely I don’t believe. They are after one thing only, I’m not giving it up, but that depends on what you decide to put in my Solo cup.”
I drank too much caffeine, ate too many Cookout trays and ate so much half-priced sushi on Tuesdays and Thursdays that I probably have undiagnosed mercury poisoning. Man, that Wolfpack Roll is awesome. I may or may not have put 100 goldfish in the fountain behind Talley and subsequently fed them until they all got eaten by sea gulls. Someone should tell those birds the ocean is 120 miles east.
And now, as I think back and remember the days when I read the columns of Jeff Gaither and Mark McLawhorn’s cartoons as a freshman (and will probably still read his cartoons as a PhD. Candidate), I could not imagine the day that I would go the way of my forefathers … I mean, writers. Yet, here I am, saying “auf wiedersehen” to the Brickyard, the Bell Tower sans bells and the hope I had for our men’s basketball team to break the curse of Jimmy V. while I attended the University. In leaving the things that I love, it makes me appreciate the few things I hated: time spent in Harrelson Hall, anything related to Orgo and losing to Carolina (which made 41-10 all the sweeter).
I am going to go address my graduation announcements and decorate my cap in red, white and Wolfpack. To the ones I leave behind, I hope my columns made you more aware of the world around you, and that someone will endeavor to continue this legacy. But to you, the ones embarking with me into the yellowed pastures of an unstable economy and the fallow fields of unemployment, I say please reflect during these precious few days we have left. This is the last Thursday of your undergraduate career, so make the most of it.
