Change is like a boner. It’s hard and sometimes it comes at inconvenient times, but it’s necessary for life to go on. And usually you feel better after it than you did before it.

I’m graduating. And I’m not ready.

Change is coming, and I don’t know what my life after Furman is going to look like. I’m scared. But I’m excited. Right now it’s like I’m in that tornado from The Wizard of Oz. On the other side lies adulthood in Technicolor, though I’ll probably end up having to ally with some brainless and heartless people to get my way. And there will always be someone smarter and more beautiful than I who keeps showing up to give me unwarranted advice from her giant pink bubble. But what I’ve learned this year is that you can’t stay in Kansas forever. Greenville has been my home for my entire life- I gotta go see what’s on the other side of the rainbow.

Underclassmen- CHERISH THIS TIME. CHERISH IT, YOU LITTLE BUGGERS. I’ll miss you guys immensely. And seriously, you’re only here once. The papers suck, the projects suck and at least one of your roommates is probably going to suck. But everything is temporary. And that’s the mentality I’m graduating with. Even if my next job ends up being something that even Mike Rowe wouldn’t do, it’ll only be reality for a little while.

To the class of 2013, thanks for a great four years. To the editors of The Paladin, thanks for putting up with having to delete all the Holocaust jokes in my articles. To the people that are still reading this column, thanks for understanding that spring semester senior year makes you really unattractively sentimental.

Just a couple of weeks left. Then the next step begins.

Let’s do this. They ain’t ready.