Goodbye, Kent

The first night in my apartment in Kent I wrote a blog entry. I suppose it is only fitting to write one on my last.

(don't go looking for said entry it no longer exists for various reasons.)

When I moved into my apartment in Kent on July 27, 2011 (yes I know the date. I have an odd talent for remembering dates), I was, for lack of a better word, a hot mess. I was stressed out about living away from home on my own without roommates for the first time ever. I was in a period of still getting over a bad breakup and I was just not in a good place.

But I knew that grad school was right for me and that if anything was going to finally shake me out of the funk I had found myself in, this would be it.

Kent has been the most enriching, beneficial, and life-changing event in my life to date. I can't even break it down into the individual things I have done or experienced while here. I have made mistakes, I have learned, and I have become so much better. The grad school journey was more learning about myself than learning how to be in this field. I was always meant to be in this field. I just needed to learn how to fit myself into it and teach myself how to be a better student affairs professional and how to be a better advocate for the issues I find near and dear to my heart.


And now as I look around my apartment at the few remaining items that need to be packed up I am sad. I am sad to know that I will never live in this apartment again, and sad to know that I have truly finished my time as a graduate student at Kent State.

As I look out my apartment window (the very same one where the spider was a few days ago if you followed that disaster on Twitter) I look at what will be my last Kent sunset for a while. I'm sad to be leaving, but excited to see where I'm going to end up.

Thanks for everything, Kent. It's been real.