As you can imagine, the last week has been awash with goodbyes. I've had my last meetings with professors trying to discuss my future. I've had my last goodbyes with friends promising to keep in touch and that the internet won't disappear in Indonesia and other such things. I've done some thinking on the ways Oberlin has changed me, though I'm sure that will only become obvious with time.
I will say that now, a day after graduation, I'm happy to say that I'm done. I'll certainly miss aspects of Oberlin (the people, the environment) and it's been a great four years, but I'm also happy to be moving on. As they say, the big adventure is yet to come. I'm lucky enough to have a clear plan for the next two years, and though things after that are murky, I have a year before I have to start figuring that out. Oberlin, I trust, has prepared me well for that challenge and the other, unforeseen challenges that will also be coming my way.
But, with all this in mind, it is also time for me to bid this blog goodbye. If you have questions about Oberlin, please continue to feel free to contact me. However, it is the way of the world that we move away from a place and that place moves along without us. Saturday, as I was frantically walking through the Con on my way to the second to last Flora the Red Menace performance, I passed a tour group. The guide leading it was talking about music opportunities for College students and started listing ensembles specifically for College students. I listened as she listed College Community Strings and College Community Winds and then--much to my amazement--she also mentioned the Arts and Sciences Orchestra. I was overjoyed and chimed in with some sort of overenthusiastic comment about how great an ensemble the orchestra is. And then I realized something: I was saying all that no longer as Zoë, the co-manager, but now simply as Zoë, former orchestra member. The realization was a little bittersweet. I won't be coming back to the orchestra next year. I do, however, know that it's in good hands and will continue on without me, just as it continued on this year without its original founders. And I couldn't be happier about that.
That, I suppose, is as fitting a metaphor as any for the end of my college time. We, in some small way, touch a place, it touches us, and then we move on. Of course, this is hardly the end of the story. If you're interested in continuing to follow along with my exploits, please visit my new blog. And if not, know that College Orchestra is still out there, and CSA, and ballet classes, and any of the other numerous opportunities at Oberlin that I've been lucky enough to experience, as well as the many, many that I haven't. They're there, waiting for you, just like they were waiting for me.
Thank you. It's been a blast.
