it's hard to say goodbye

every three-ish years as a child i moved away from whatever town i was living in and looked forward to a new adventure.  even once my dad retired from the air force, we still moved houses every three years ... it was just always in the same city.

military kids just kind of get used to this and i truly believe it's because of this that i can't commit to anything longer than a few years.  it's probably at least partially responsible for my college hopping days, the fact that i declared over seven different majors prior to junior year, and the fact that i'm notorious for starting projects and throwing in the towel once it gets serious.  no thanks, dude.  i'm used to having an out.

anyways, i've always thought of myself as a person that's good at goodbyes.  i'm able to detach myself the appropriate amount in the months leading up to my departure in an effort to make the split as painless as possible.  you learn at a young age as a military brat that if you don't do this, the waking-up-in-a-new-city-and-going-to-a-new-school thing kind of catches you off guard.

but it turns out i'm not so good at goodbyes if i'm not the one leaving.  one of my dear friends (kate aka weirdstuff) is moving away next week to start her fabulous job in the big city, holler!  we had our goodbye cookout last evening and when i finally left i was in some serious denial that it wasn't me leaving.  i mean, i'm not quite ready to leave due to that last semester of grad school i have to finish up, but it just felt so sad leaving the apartment.  it was like it finally hit me that our undergrad days were over ... even if they've been over for a solid two years now.  

so in honor of moving, big girl jobs, and the wonderful days of undergrad, here are five of my favorite pictures of weirdstuff and our friends.  and don't worry, i'll tell you a brief story for all of them.

1.  tar heel baseball -- one of our favorite things to do during undergrad involved going to brunch and then lazily walking up to watch a unc baseball game.  it was magical and such a good use of our time.  i promise.

2.  quadding -- despite the allergies and the terrible pollen every.single.spring, we always loved to go quadding in the afternoon.  i don't know if quadding is near as fun as an adult or if you aren't laying under the beautiful carolina sky, but some of my favorite afternoons consisted of quadding.  this picture represents quadding, but actually occurred at some end of the year dorm party and i was making everyone pose as if they didn't have teeth.  i'm not sure why, i just know it's on the facebook caption.  i was a strange, demanding friend, obviously.

3.  birthdays -- weirdstuff and tater schemed to get everyone together to celebrate tan's birthday senior year and it was so.much.fun.  tan was completely surprised and somehow everyone was able to get there and keep it a secret and celebrate with her - hooray!  we also had fun decorating for andy's birthday one year with some bright pink streamers ...  which really just resulted in some ridiculous girl-band-ninja pictures, but i don't know where those are.  but i promise it was something that'd make you jealous.

  

4.  christmakate -- one year we took this gem of a photo during christmakate (thanks andy).  i originally thought it represented us perfectly (hello christmas photo!) and after a few years i'm still convinced.  no one can remember what prompted these beautiful faces, but i'm glad it's preserved forever. 

5.  cheerio, kate! -- sophomore year i was able to convince weirdstuff, tan, and tater to join me at cheerio over the summer and this beauty was snapped during counselor photos.  don't worry.  we took another one where none of us were looking like this, but i'm kind of partial to this one.  what's not to love?

happy moving, weirdstuff!  go ahead and break in the big city for us - we'll be visiting soon!