my second wave of goodbyes

I've been down the past few weeks, and it is not because of finals or papers, which do suck. I'm bracing myself for my 2nd wave of goodbyes. I thought last year would be hard enough. I really miss T and B being here. They understand me like no others. T has been my best friend all my life, and luckily, she is moving closer, but still things won't be the same because we aren't in the same city. Anyway, we have cars now, so we can deal.

I'm really upset about Mandy leaving. We've gotten really close these past 3 years, and I consider her one of my best friends. We always are on AIM when writing papers, and I don't know how it will be like having her on the other side of the ocean next year. How will we have our nightly IMs writing papers? I am just going to remininsce a bit. Mandy was, I don't even remember the word for it. She was on leadership team when I was on executive team, so I was like her big sister or something. What did we call those things? Anyway. She went from being whatever that was to a close friend. We suffered through McNair together and spent more time NOT doing our theses than actually doing them. Mandy made that summer fun. We both share a love of McDonald's, and it has become our thing because few other people appreciate it like we do. We've been to NYC, Disney World, Colorado (where we got food poisoned), and probably some other places that we've been that I've forgotten. So many memories. So many smiles. So much laughter. She will be sorely missed. But I'm proud of her. She's living the dream, no regrets! One day we'll be the cool grandmothers with the stories.

I think about the exciting things that are coming up, and I want to hit the pause button because I know as soon as they come, other things go, like Mandy. If only life had a pause and rewind button. But alas, life doesn't work that way. I'm grateful for the time we've had together. This is our plan - get our Ph.D.s by age thirty, start thinking about children then, find a school that we both can work at, and have our children be friends because by then all our friends' kids will be in middle school. Ha. Anyway, I know life is tricky, and maybe we won't end up in the same city, state, or country. Just know that I have my memories in my heart, and I'm dreading when you leave town next week.

There are more goodbyes coming up, but this one is the one that makes me want to cry at the moment. I LOVE YOU MANDY!!!