So this one’s a bit short, but I am heading out of here pretty quickly, so enjoy and we’ll be out of New York here shortly.
As we were getting ready to head back through the crowd of everyone I knew, Hannah was coming back from the bar. “Hey, we’re going to head over to the Irish Pub about now, so are you guys good to go?”
“Oh, yeah,” Grant smiled, “I think we can head out whenever.”
“Great,” my Big smiled. “Let me round up everyone. I don’t know where half of them went. Meet you outside?”
Grant and I nodded.
“Sounds good,” I piped up.
Grant started the process of gently pushing me out of the bar through the crowd. We ran into a few more people I knew while he was doing this. During our conversation, we had been passed by several other people I knew (though for clarity, I had left them out earlier; I also left out the sheer number of pictures I subjected Grant to as I ran into these people). And I did have to have a short conversation with everyone because it was one of the last times we would all be in town. I thought it was very appropriate to run into them in a crowded bar, in this sense.
When I was younger (like a sophomore or something), I’d always told Hannah that I wasn’t going to let her leave when she graduated. I was going to win the lottery and rent out all the houses on The Hill to all my friends. And then that way everyone I really cared about could just stay in town with me. I think I always said it to make myself feel better, since it’s hard losing your Big Sis two years before you graduate, while most of your other friends would have their Big Sis around until the end of their Junior year. She always smiled and shook her head in response. In a way, being in The Sea Lion tonight was like the toned down and smaller version of that wish. A lot of people I knew had come back into town to see their friends or Littles graduate. Or, for some of them, at least, they were still living here or came up all the time because they were just a short drive away. Seeing so many people I knew, and really the entire bar was pretty much comprised of people I knew tonight, was a very nice sentiment for a send off… everyone coming together one last time while you’re out with your Big Sis celebrating your graduation. It was kind of like the end of a movie about your years growing up, almost like a “where are they now” segment during the credits.
As Grant and I were heading out, The Sea Lion started playing one of my favorite bubblegum pop songs from the nineties. It was one of those songs that I would recognize just from the opening bars alone at any given time. Actually, probably just the first few notes, if you can believe that. “Oh my gosh, I love this song!!” I shouted at him.
“Really?” He sounded a bit skeptical. Skeptical probably isn’t the right word, surprised concern would be more appropriate.
“Yes!”
“Okay, let’s go dance to it then,” he laughed. Oh Grant. From the very first time I met him, he was always very good-humored about even the stupidest quirks, though this is the first time he put up with one of mine.
But going back to the “where are they now” segment, this was definitely like the end of a movie about your years growing up, especially now that this song was playing. And, really, any movie about my early life would have totally ended with that particular pop song.
Help! I'm Post-Grad... 