They say one truly never graduates from Ole Miss, and it took me four years to finally understand that. In the midst of graduation, parties, and saying goodbye to friends, it’s difficult to reflect on the past four years and think that every choice I’ve made led me right to this moment.
It seems like yesterday I was walking across the stage at my high school graduation, and in less than a week, I will have accepted my diploma. Just like that, my whole college career is over in 15 seconds walking across a stage.
Four years ago, I made the decision to attend Ole Miss. I was the only one of my friends to go out of state to college, and the only one in my graduating class to go to Ole Miss. I’ve always been one to branch out and do something different. I was ready to meet new people and start over.
My freshman year, I lived on the floor in my dorm with best friends I couldn’t live without. We all pledged Tri Delta together and were inseparable. It was a year I could never forget.
The next year, we all moved to apartments together and were still so close. We still are to this day. However, things change and people change. After my sophomore year, I found three people that mean more to me than anything. We are simply sisters. We fight like we are family, because we are. I can’t imagine life without them, and they’re the ones that have made my Ole Miss experience.
Choices are everything. They lead you through life, and everything that’s happened to me is a learning experience. Choosing to go out of state to Ole Miss pushed me out of my comfort zone, and I’ve learned so much through that.
Being from Alabama, I only knew a handful of people who went to Ole Miss, so I was new to it all. I had never even been to an Ole Miss football game, and now I am so proud to call myself an Ole Miss alum.
From football games in the Grove and Rush week, to weekend trips and studying abroad, I couldn’t imagine a better four years and a better group of people to be surrounded with. Ole Miss is home, and the friends I’ve made are family.
AnneBanks Blackwell can be reached at abblackw@go.olemiss.edu. Read her work on Oxford Stories Longform.
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