It's bittersweet, really

I'm almost done with school. For - who knows how long. There are fourteen days left until I receive my degree; there are fifteen days left until I receive my commission.

There are so many things that I regret not doing, and so many things I regret never trying. I will never regret the things I did do.

What a strange time in our lives! We're at a corner, looking forward and backward at the same time! It's silly, really. Like your first drink at twenty-one - as if it's the first, as if it's something special, that arbitrary day. It's a title and a moment, but little more. Yet these times matter.

I can't help but think,'this is the last...' for every action I take. This is the last exam... this is the last paper... this is the last class...

I can't help but reminisce about all the friends and times and - the moments when time stopped with friends.

And I'm starting something new, something wonderful. I've got a career ahead of me that could take me some great places. I'll be in Madison, enjoying the summer, and then autumn - until January. Then, I leave. Ft. Benning, GA; Ft. Knox, KY; Ft. Bliss, TX. Who knows where from there? Someplace challenging? Someplace easy? Someplace rewarding? Places I never thought I'd go.

It's not overwhelming. It's exciting.

This morning, I felt like I was in Ireland. The fog was low. It smelled so ... green? I'm not sure. It's hard to describe. There's something about scent that can move you to a different time more than any other sense. I felt young and old at the same time.

This is it. I'm almost done.

As Kerouac wrote in his novel that mirrors every man's life,"What is that feeling when you're driving away from people and they recede on the plain till you see their specks dispersing? -- it's the too-huge world vaulting us, and it's good-by. But we lean forward to the next crazy venture beneath the skies."