The year — nay, my entire college career — is quickly drawing to a close.

I’m reminded more often about bygone years. For some reason, I seem to be running into my friends from Speed 3 on a more frequent basis now than in the past few years. Some of them have changed significantly in appearance. Others, not so much. But I know that we have all grown.

I look at myself in the mirror and see that I have aged. My complexion is more weathered; my hair has begun graying. I still have the look of youth, but I make no outward denial of the march of time. It’s nearly May, which means that I am nearly 22. Gosh, twenty-two years. I’m sure that my parents and grandparents reading this will scoff at the notion, but I feel old.

I’m a senior at Rose and at Pike. I’m the person who supposedly has seen or done everything before and thus is looked to for advice. I like that role, but the price is that I soon will enter the real world. I soon will be back to square one, where I will need to prove myself all over again. My elders, who supposedly have seen or done everything before, advise me that this cycle is repeated throughout life. Probably true, but I’m still uneasy about it. Moving back to square one means that I lose most of my influence and authority. It means that I (for the most part) lose control.

Losing control. Man, I hate not being in control. I think that is part of the reason why I don’t like drinking all that much. I simply cannot stand not being in complete control of my life and my actions.

One of the other things I think about on occasion is my legacy here at Pike and at Rose. I wonder how (if?) I will be remembered. It’s not something that I can dictate or change; it’s simply something that is. It’s an odd topic to ponder, almost as if I’m contemplating my own eulogy. On occasion, names of Pikes long ago graduated will come up in discussion. The references run the gamut from the light-hearted to the reverent to the critical. Of course, the only people who are remembered are those who have been active enough to be memorable. I hope that I have been active enough over the past few years so that I have made a positive difference in at least one person’s life.

I’ve tried to make the most of the past few months. I’ve been staying busy, be it with my photography class, training for the triathlon, or hanging out with my fellow seniors. I stayed up all night at Relay for Life. I pranked my little brother by saran-wrapping his dorm room. I went to Paris. I started reading more (currently in the rotation: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance [still], The Millionaire Next Door, and the Koran [don’t knock it ’til you’ve read it]). I planted trees around Terre Haute. I took the FE. I worked on senior project. And I helped at (and after) Pike’s work day.

Ah, work day. So much done, so little accomplished.

Suffice it to say that my project got done. Hey, I know how to repair windows, and my team was awesome. A couple other projects got done too. Of course, that statement implies that there were a good number of projects that were NOT completed.

The most significant of those was the laying of drainage tile around the main house. It should have been a simple project, but things went downhill rapidly after we kept running into unmarked utility lines. By “running into,” I mean, quite literally, “running into.” The biggest snafu of the day was when our backhoe hit a buried 7200-volt power line. Nobody was injured, but the blunder knocked out power for a couple of hours and is almost certain to saddle us with a large repair bill. Oops. Of course, had the utility-marking people actually done their jobs correctly, we would have known about the cable and probably would not have hit it. Oh well. The next day, we decided that the entire project was far more than we could handle, so we filled in all of the trenches and holes, making the previous day’s efforts an exercise in futility.

Fortunately, my electrical engineering senior project was much more successful. Our project actually works! We gave our presentation about our successful endeavor on April 21 at the ECE Senior Symposium. The presentation went off without a hitch thus making us happy. I find it interesting that four years ago, in April 2000, I visited Rose for the first time on the same day as the ECE Senior Symposium. Obviously, I subsequently attended Rose. I wonder if somebody else was in my shoes last week, making their college decision on a tour during Senior Symposium?

That visit four years ago lead to a series of events that will soon culminate in gradutation. Graduation is just a few weeks away. After I walk the stage during commencement, I have some down time, then… I’m going to Europe! Again!

The plans are taking shape: we’re flying into Frankfurt for the start of a 24-day trip. I’m looking forward to it!

Make the most of the last vestiges of childhood.