A Last Time For Everything

This week is the last before my Easter holidays from college. It marks the last time I'll be taking such a break from education as an Undergraduate. Drama has already put on its last play of the year, for which I set up lights, and we're due to sit our last exams in May.

We've had group photos taken, dressed up for Halloween and Christmas, and have our final ball in college to attend next month.

There is a last time for everything, and it comes across as being rather frightening. With each Last Time our college lives are coming to an end. After our last exams, we'll go our own ways. Some will travel, others will work, others still will do a Masters Degree, and it's impossible to tell when everyone is guaranteed to come together again if not at our graduation.

But I don't want to dwell on the finality of Last Times. With each one, we have an opportunity to reflect on t he positive aspects of our lives together. When we finish up at the end of May, a whole world of possibilities opens up. We have a choice about how we each spend our lives. Each Last Time is an example of what we can strive to do in th future.

Personally speaking, the final performance in college is a sign that I can join a Drama group outside of college. I can keep acting, make new friends, new memories, put on new shows and play new parts and, eventually, have new Last Times; the last rehearsal, the last opening night, the last line, the last show.

The Last Time I see my friends before the summer begins is a sign of the sort of things we can do, before life sweeps in. Small gatherings, drinks out, movie nights in, dinner, a trip to theatre, concerts, even holidays. I don't believe they are just friends for college, even if talking to them consistently will be much more difficult.

The point is that just because we're experiencing a lot of things for the first time as Undergratuates, there are still plenty of ways to see each other, to do the things we love, to live some semblance of the life we've come to know.

This may be the last week before Easter, and the last time this happens to us as students, but next year will be the First Time we're not students right before Easter. We can have our first Christmases outside of education. If we aren't teaching or working towards another degree, we can have our first January not going into a school the moment the holidays end.

There is a last time for everything in this world, a last time we experience things in particular ways in our lifetimes, but that doesn't mean we can't experience new things. With every Last Time, we have the possibility of having another First Time. Someday, we can figure that one out together.