| TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood, | |
| And sorry I could not travel both | |
| And be one traveler, long I stood | |
| And looked down one as far as I could | |
| To where it bent in the undergrowth; | 5 |
| Then took the other, as just as fair, | |
| And having perhaps the better claim, | |
| Because it was grassy and wanted wear; | |
| Though as for that the passing there | |
| Had worn them really about the same, | 10 |
| And both that morning equally lay | |
| In leaves no step had trodden black. | |
| Oh, I kept the first for another day! | |
| Yet knowing how way leads on to way, | |
| I doubted if I should ever come back. | 15 |
| I shall be telling this with a sigh | |
| Somewhere ages and ages hence: | |
| Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— | |
| I took the one less traveled by, | |
| And that has made all the difference. |
I graduated from Augsburg College yesterday. Throughout the school year, it never registered that this was all ending until the last day of classes when I realized it was the last time I'd take a French class in my favorite building, Old Main, and have a piano lesson, which I've been doing since I was six. It put me on the brink of tears. A week later during the graduation ceremony, I sat down, turned towards Kara (my friend I met while studying in Italy) and she had started crying, "I can't do this, Ray-Ray." I joined her in on-and-off crying and laughing hysterically through the whole thing. I don't remember the speakers or what they told us, but I know the words "Augsburg College" really affected me. And so the last twenty-four hours have been a literal blur through crying eyes, farewells and see-you-laters. It's looking a lot like last May, when I said goodbye to Paris. And I am the queen of not dealing well with goodbyes.
Let's go back in time to the fall of 2008 when I started looking at colleges. I really didn't know what I was looking for and I was actually pretty indifferent about the whole thing. All I knew was that I wanted to be near home because the thought of moving far away was unfathomable (Look at me now!) and my decision mainly came down to somewhere that had French and music and wanting to experience life in the heart of a city. There was something that I loved about Augsburg's campus that didn't try to impress with acres of perfect new sod or state-of-the-art facilities. I loved that it felt real, homey and really, really different from any other school I'd visited. I sat in on a French class during scholarship weekend and I remember thinking I'd never be able to speak French like that, but I wanted to try. I hastily signed my papers, that yes, I was attending Augsburg and I threw away those from other schools. This was it.
At orientation the following July, I was placed into a group with whom I spent two days playing games while getting to know each other and the campus. As with everything that's new, I hated it. I hated that I already had friends at home and that we were forced to start over again. My mom called and asked if I had made any friends and I said, "I don't think so." I skipped out on the night's activities and sat in my temporary window in Urness and stared at the red-and-white streams of light from the traffic on 94 until I was tired enough to sleep. I wanted to go home.
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| At the 2009 MN State Fair during orientation and meeting two of my best friends. We still laugh at how awkward we are in this photo. |
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| Graduating with my best friend/roommate Amanda |
We're all dispersing now- getting jobs, getting married (Ashley and Rick!), moving to different states, different countries, but as excited as I am about my next life chapter in Paris, I doubt I'll ever be anything but an Auggie at heart.
ONCE AN AUGGIE, ALWAYS AN AUGGIE
CLASS OF 2013
CLASS OF 2013
