Sooner for Life

I’ve been done with classes for about three weeks now, done with rowing for about a week and a half, but I don’t think it’s completely set in yet. I keep getting the same question over and over: “Are you excited to be done?”. Every single time I shock people when I say no.

Don’t get me wrong - there are some things I’m excited to leave behind, and I know what lies ahead will be great, but there are a ton of people and places I will miss more than anything. First and foremost, I’m so thankful that I was able to have an experience that is so hard to let go. The people who have become so dear to me and the places I made my own are only the beginning of what made it such a special experience.

It’s crazy to think that four years ago I was graduating high school knowing that what lie ahead is going to be a crazy ride. I look back at pictures of my final days of high school, and I think it’s so funny that the person in that picture didn’t know the people I know now or understand just how crazy that ride would be.

Looking back at old photos is one of my favorite things to do, and I love to share them with others. Toward the end of my senior year, my friends and I would take photos and videos knowing between those and our memories that’s all we would have left from our time in college. I’m excited for the days we can come back together for football games and do it all over again even if just for a weekend.

I was reading through my journal recently and found a short one-page entry from sometime last September. I wrote about how I knew I only had eight months left of college, and while that may sound like a long time, I knew it would fly by. And I can absolutely confirm that I was 100% correct. The time flew by, but there’s nothing I can do to change that. So, I’m forever grateful for the time I was given in Norman and with the best people on Earth. I am also especially grateful to 18 year old Emily who had no idea what she was getting herself into at the time. I may be a different person now, but I know that the growth and change was all worth it.

So, I’ve spent the last few weeks milling over my last four years, and this is the best way I could put it into words. I could pull out old photos, videos, drunk texts, football tickets or Big XII medals and show you exactly how it all went. I could lay it out on a timeline and tell you about my last football game as a student, my first OU/TX, Saturday nights on Campus Corner or even Wednesday nights in our kitchen. But to put it into words, I want to make sure I don’t forget just how grateful I am for everything I experienced at the University of Oklahoma. Given the chance to do it all again, I wouldn’t change a thing.

Boomer Sooner,

Emily xo