Friday

Friday
 I glance over my shoulder and the grey road is crammed with aggressive rush hour drivers, but there is a small opening. I flick on my blinker and get off at 25th street. The sky is a light and cloudy grey and crumpled brown and yellow leaves blow and swirl through the air. I drive to Middlebrook Hall, a completely regular-looking red bricked edifice that holds all of the U's honors college students. Annie Thompson runs out of the entrance in a flurry. She looks so collegy and sophisticated with her brown messy bun, flowing peach scarf and black rectangular glasses. We have been trying to get together for months, and finally I am at the U! I park, and we put what feels like a hundred quarters into the meter. She leads me into her dorm and explains "Everyone in my dorm is super cuddly and close, but I haven't succumbed to the cuddling.. I don't want the germs all over me. My friends and I call ourselves the crew. Did I mention I am an avid West Ham fan now? I ordered a twenty dollar scarf from England!" We arrive at the eighth floor and walk to her cramped and dimly lit dorm. Her roommate, a round-faced Norwegian girl is laying on the bed with a curly haired guy, evidently napping and cuddling, and I large nerdy guy is sitting in the corner with his laptop. T.S. Eliot and Lord of The Rings quotes are strewn all over the walls and drying laundry hangs haphazardly everywhere.
Then we wander across the University. She shows me where her classes are and describes her weird professors. We pass some students slack lining and listening to Nelly Fertado. Sipping lattes and eating giant peanut butter cookies we walk down Frat row. Annie hasn't been to one party and finds Frat row disgusting. I love her.
We end up at the river. Its brown depths curve slowly to where it meets the maroon bridge, and it's lined with orange and green trees. We talk about inside jokes from last year, how quickly people from high school change, and how refreshing it is to start over. "Just be yourself. People will love you. You are going to have so much fun in college!!" Annie tells me enthusiastically.
For a moment I let myself slip into a yearning mentality. I want to go to college so badly. The slightly dreary hall of Wayzata High School are starting to get to me. I want change and to be surrounded by liberals. I want cool friends who randomly like British soccer and who hate football and partying! AH! I WANT!
I force myself to come back to reality. I have one more year, and I can choose to enjoy it and embrace it. Or, I can waste my life focusing on wanting the future.
I am beyond excited for what college will bring, but I am doing my best to stay in the moment. The moment is the only thing that is real. And life is so short, it is a waste of everything to constantly be thinking forward into a future that does not exist, and that is an illusion.