This is the LAST song.

"Ohmygawwwdddd today is like...your last day as an undergraduate student everrr. How are you going to spend your last day of being a kid?"

If I had a dime for every time someone asked me that question today, I'd have at least $6.00, which gets me a delicious veggie crepe with long hot peppers and feta as well as a Snapple from the Crepe Truck with seventy-five cents to spare. And being asked that question, as well as listening to a multitude of other statements today, got me thinking and helped me reach a resolution: I wish the word "last" was banned from the English language around the time of large transitionary life milestones such as...oh, I don't know...an impending commencement from a certain university (..cough..T for Temple U bright and early tomorrow morning...cough..)

The thought of the word "last" is just so grim. It makes me think of either the end of something special (like PGST or Temple) or sticking out something horrible until you are at a point where you can be relieved (like working at Panera). The events of life shouldn't be dreaded, but embraced, and thinking about this being the "last" time something will happen is ridiculous and sort of sickening to me. I don't know what is going to happen tomorrow (no, really, I don't...we have no instructions for graduation), let alone within the next few months or year and I'd hate to think of my moving to Valencia as being the "last" time I am going to ever see my best friends and loved ones. Instead, I prefer to think of it as an "until we meet again and we WILL meet again" sort of phase because that doesn't denote anything is ending.

So, all of you mopers, dry your tears, stick your chins up, and put on those smiles I love so much. Remember that you are all my SUNSHINE and I don't plan on May 11, 2011 being the last day I see sunshine in my life. This will not be the last time we hang out, or the last time we get dinner, or the last time we post about the various eccentricities of life on our silly blogs. I mean, we'll probably just do this next week. (On a related note, this will also not be the last time we don that silly academic regalia since I totally plan on looking the part of Gryffindor for HP7-2 in July.)

In all reality, this is a time of careful and uncertain transition for many of us, and yes, it is technically our last night of undergraduate university. But that doesn't mean it has to be the last time with the people we love nor that we need to reflect on the "last" of everything versus plan for the future. And should it unfortunately be the last time we see each other, listen to this beautiful song to remember everything and smile about the memories:  

I love you guys. This definitely will not be the last time I say that.