38,256 Pages

I wanted to avoid a last day of classes post. The nostalgia of the first day sinking in. The end of an era. I can't avoid it. There are lots of feels involved. I am happy. I am scared. I am blank. I am in a lot of debt. But, it was worth every penny. I sat in lectures, took my notes, and did my homework. That's not where I learned the bulk of the knowledge I am leaving with today. I learned through living in an environment where we were encouraged to voice our opinions. To challenge our past opinions, and educate ourselves using our peer's experiences. Our professors facilitated classrooms, and chose noteworthy subjects, but ultimately, we learned as much from each other as we did from them. The educators I met were encouraging. By encouraging I mean that there wasn't tension. We weren't told what to believe. In fact, in my education, I was fortunate enough to have educators who fostered students who pushed back on textbooks. Not everything written is fact. They have inspired me to be a lifelong learner. I would not be the person I am today without the schooling I received. Without the educators who didn't dance around topics like race, gender and sexuality. We faced these things head on, looking at their origins. Looking at the origins of hate. My opinions are my own, but they were nurtured through the love and acceptance of all of my professors here at MSU. I am sad to leave, but I know this is not good bye. I have built several friendship and professional relationships that will be there to guide and support me in all that I do.

This semester, I decided to keep track of how many pages I read. I've read about 4,807 pages. I would say that's a fair representation of most of my semesters here at MSU. Which means, as I walked out of my last sit-down class of undergrad today, I left with about 38,256 more pages of knowledge. Read on, my friends. Read with your friends. Talk with your friends. You won't learn anything if you don't listen. If you don't ask.

GO GREEN.