Last Day Feels

I don’t really know where to start this blog. Everything that I did, no matter how routine it may have seemed during the session, was weighted down with the knowledge that I might never do those things here again. There were so many people to say goodbye to and so many of those goodbyes felt more final than I’d prefer. Usually when I leave summer programs, I don’t feel the same sense of melancholy that I did today.

The day started off fairly anticlimactically. My group did our presentation; it went very smoothly. We finished with exactly one second before the time limit of 20 minutes. Everyone’s part sounded so much more polished than yesterday, and we all executed so well. It was clear that we had all practiced after our rehearsal last night. There were 4 total presentations this morning, including ours, and when the last group finished, we went outside to take group photos.

The Metacognition group!

During the photos, I couldn’t help but reflect on everything that we’ve done in the class this session. I remembered the first couple of days, when we were getting exposed to the ideas of spacing and interleaving and learning how to find research articles. I reflected on the seemingly countless days in between the beginning and end of the class, where I was so pleased to get a check-plus on my first response paper, which I spent hours in Mansueto working on. Even the most recent days came back to me in a wave of nostalgia; the finalizing of our procedure, the execution of our project, the collection and analyzation of data. Along the way, I became progressively close to my classmates, Kate, and Marjorie. I’m going to genuinely miss this class; not only have I learned a lot about how our brains absorb and understand information, but I also learned what it’s like to participate in a discussion-based, smaller classroom. This course was an invaluable experience, and I’m so glad I got to be part of it.

Class photo.

After class, which ended at lunch break, I went to Shake Shack one last time with Olivia. The Shroom Burger, with all of its gooey goodness, will be a regrettable absence from my stomach for the foreseeable future. We went to the London House after lunch, which has a public rooftop restaurant, and looked out at downtown Chicago for the last time this summer. Although I spent most of my time on campus or near it, I also traveled to downtown fairly frequently, and it’s a really beautiful area that I won’t forget.

Until next tine, Shake Shack.

I spent my time after lunch packing, saying goodbye to people, and just chilling out in the dorms. During this time, I started feeling sad about leaving again, but this time I remembered all of my experiences in the dorms. All of the late nights I spent out in the common area writing papers or reading academic journals because George was in the room sleeping, the times I would randomly run into a bunch of people that I knew in the bathroom, cooking in the kitchen with friends. This place has been a really great place to live, and it’s also helped me to grow as a person.

Chicago is such a pretty city.

Kate and I before saying goodbye.

It’s taking a while to set in that the program is actually over. This time tomorrow I’ll (hopefully) be at home in bed, but right now I can’t help but think about all of my experiences from the orientation to this point. There are so many emotions that I’m feeling, and I can’t put them all into words, but what I can say is that my participation in this class and overall trip has been so memorable, enjoyable, and (most importantly) educational. I learned about practical responsibilities, I got to talk with people from all over the world, I was able to feel what it was like to attend school away from home, and I got to explore and research a subject that I’ve had no previous exposure to.

I'm going to miss seeing this sunset every evening.