Roller coaster finals week

59

As my first year at CMC entered its final week, the Student Government Association organized another karaoke night in the library. This time, I decided to sing songs by the Eagles because the CMC mascot is the Eagle. More of my friends showed up to watch than in January and I got a lot of applause for my singing.

The following Monday however, I made noise in the dorm early in the morning before quiet hours were over. Then my dad told me not to do that, which only caused me to get mad at him and make more noise. He got frustrated with me. Our disagreement went on for a while before I went to breakfast. I was still upset but Nate was there so I told him about it. He was able to talk it through with me. Then I called my dad and apologized to him about this situation.

Nevertheless, after breakfast, I was still feeling a bit upset so I went into the first floor study room and stuck a sign in the door window saying, “Do not enter the kingdom of isolation.” A little while later, Andrew came into the room and also talked it through with me. Then at lunch, I picked a different table to sit at instead of the team table because I was still upset. Nate came over and convinced me to sit at the team table with him.

I came over to the table. Nate and Ana held my hands. After that, things got better, but I still wasn’t feeling completely normalized. Thank goodness I only had Yoga class that evening and I had that day off from running. A short time later, Brooklyn came in and noticed me holding Nate’s and Ana’s hands and she asked what was going on. Right then, I didn’t have the energy to talk about it, and I was just about to leave the cafeteria.

I felt somewhat neutral for my online Yoga class, although still mildly upset. I logged on. In the end, I was able to get through that class alright. A short time later, I was just walking around the hallways of the dorm when I spotted Brooklyn on the second floor. I went and explained my frustrations to her. By then, the day was getting late. I told her that I was having a rough day and talking to her made me feel better.

After that I noticed that a few students were hanging out in Sky’s room so I joined them. One of them was from my Psychology class. We went over my flash cards for the test with everybody and had them guess the answers. They got most of them right.

Later that night was the late night finals breakfast in the cafeteria at 9 p.m. They served breakfast food like pancakes and other things. They also had different games with prizes. I participated in one of those and I ended up winning a kit to make S’mores, including the roasting sticks, marshmallows, graham crackers, and Hershey’s chocolate. When the event was over, everyone went back to the dorm. However, I was faced with one challenge. I couldn’t carry all the S’more ingredients back to my room. Thankfully, Brooklyn stepped in and took some of my things to my room.

The next day, I had my final welding class. Spencer and I finished up the welding table for the Ski Area Operations shop and completed the invoice for it. In the process I learned that since we were done with the project I was exempt from attending welding class that Thursday. This was a relief for me since I had my Psychology final that afternoon.

On Wednesday I gave my final presentation about Micah in Multicultural Education class. It was well received by the class and I felt good about being done with the course.

The running team year-end awards ceremony was held after lunch on Thursday in Darren’s classroom. All my teammates attended. Shortly after getting there, I realized I was supposed to wear a CMC jacket for the pictures. Fortunately, Darren loaned me a spare sweatshirt to wear. I won certificates such as Aquamarine Award for Improvement, Arkansas River Award for Consistency, and Amethyst Award for Academic Achievement. We also got our pictures taken with our awards. After the awards presentation I gave the sweatshirt back to Darren and then we all walked back to the residence hall. Since Ana was going back home that day, we said our farewells and she hugged everyone goodbye.

Next up was my final in Psychology. Nate and I spent some time in the second-floor study room to study flashcards before the test. However, a couple of minutes into taking the final, I started stressing out because I couldn’t seem to pull the answers out of my head under pressure. This was strange because I had studied the flashcards. I ended up leaving some answers blank and turned the test in. I was still distressed after I left the class with Nate. I was wondering if I wasn’t going to pass the class, and if I wasn’t going to be on the dean’s list like that past fall.

Since I didn’t have welding class that evening, I had planned a movie night in the third-floor study room and invited people to watch The Lorax. After dinner, I bought several snacks from the dorm vending machine to give out to everybody. Nate and I got there early before the movie and we watched the moon rise over the mountains. It was just one day away from being full. We had a pretty good turnout although I had some anxiety about some friends not being there.

After the movie, Andrew wanted to go for a walk. At that time, the moon was up but remained fairly low in the sky since it was in the south, where the sun’s path is in the wintertime, and I saw the shadows from the moon. The nights were still cold in Leadville and it was late spring. We walked down the fire road, turned left at the Mineral Belt, then up a ways before turning back to campus. Since my dad was coaching at a track meet in Del Norte that day, he would be arriving in Leadville at around midnight. I decided it was easiest to stay up and wait for him. It felt just like New Year’s Eve.

The next day was CMC’s graduation day as well as move-out day. My dad and I started early packing up the room to leave for the summer. We noticed graduating students walking from the dorm to the graduation in their caps and gowns. Two of my teammates, Anne and Abby, were among them, and then Ben showed up in a cap and gown, too. He had decided to receive his welding certificates at the ceremony.

In the process of packing up, my dad got a call from my Psychology professor Dave saying I passed the class with a C, which meant I would not be making the dean’s list like the past fall. However, at least I managed to successfully complete my first year at CMC.

After packing up and cleaning my room, my dad and I went on a short run on the trails, and he took a picture of me in front of the truck loaded up with stuff from the dorm. After that, we left the college and stopped by City on a Hill coffee shop. Brooklyn was working there. We got coffees and chatted with Brooklyn for a while. As we were leaving she gave me a hug and we headed home for the summer.

---

The Blur Goes to College is a free online book published as a series. Subscribe to receive future chapters delivered by email. If you would like to support our writing, we appreciate upgrades to paid subscriptions.