Memories

Memorial Day
My memorial day weekend in retrospect actually signified a lot. At the moment it just seemed like any old fun filled three day weekend but looking at it now I guess it meant more than that. It’s my last weekend here to hang out with friends since every weekend till summer vacation I am going to be home. So it was a weekend to celebrate friendship, to celebrate a year of being freshman, one last hoorah. It was a tribute to memories of adventurous nights out, drama we thought we would never ever get out of, classes we thought we would never pass, and friendships we were glad had lasted. This memorial day weekend was in fact a tribute to memories. We reminisced about the past and future memories to be made. My friends and I shared deep conversation till 5 a.m. in the morning. I spent Sunday and Monday at the beach and saw all the seniors on their beach weeks, and remembered my senior year which seems just like yesterday. As I sat at the beach and watched the waves come and go I thought about people in my lives that have come and go, but not only those who came and left but those who came and left a mark on my life. Past friendships, past family and past loves. I remembered my grandmother who raised 17 successful children who then bore my cousins and I and raised us to be the people we are today. I remembered my aunt who tried her best to be a good mother to her daughter who was disabled, and I remembered my best friends’s father who took his life just recently in hopes for a better future for his family. I remembered that though they were gone they did something with their life, like the soldiers in Iraq who had died to make a difference. This memorial day did not just make me think of others, but it made me think of myself. The change that has occurred in me and my life, the future decisions I will make that will cause change. This Memorial Day weekend made me realize so much about the past, present and future. I don’t know what the future holds, but all I know is that I want one memorial day to come when I will reminisce about how I made a difference.