Growing
up means advancement, advancement from a nobody to a somebody. I guess today I can say I have grown up, I am
a somebody. Standing here in front of this institute I can proudly say that I
have arrived. This is probably the last time am seeing this building, the last
time am visiting it as a student. I have done it, achieved what I wanted to.
Today am not just a student, rather am an ‘Engineer of Biology’ as sir had put
it. I can see my parents waiting near the car, pride in their eyes. I can see
my professors wishing us good luck and I can see my friends; their eyes
reflecting the same emotions as me. I wonder if this is the happiest or the
saddest day of my life. I have attained my goal, and now am going to fly high
just as I had wished to. But today I am leaving something really valuable
behind me. I am leaving behind the first real family that I have ever had, my buddies and him.
There I am standing at the threshold of my student life. A long path towards a dark unknown future awaits me, hiding within it many new faces, new glories and new stories. And yet the tales of the past pull me towards them, binding me in the strings of memories. My friends, I could see their faces, their dilemmas the same as mine. We were a family, sworn to stand by each other, and today each of us is standing at the cross roads of life. We need to go ahead, march on into our destinies, but as we stand holding hands, we wonder if we can do that without the protection of each other? For 5 years, we were in the cocoon of love that we shared, but now the cocoon has broken open, and like new born butterflies we need to spread our wings into the new tomorrow. Each of us had but one question, can we do it alone?
This was the place where we fought battles, wars with our inner selves and the world. There were battles won and lost, and then there were fights that brought us a step closer to who we really were. A place that held such bittersweet moments of life, moment that changed the definition of who we truly were. I wonder where did we learn more lessons, in the classes or in those corridors outside the class, where all the drama took place. The corridors where we used to eat together, laugh together. The corridors where the most interesting of the conversations took place, the place where misunderstandings appeared and dispersed. The corridors whose every nook, every tile and every stone was fed with a precious memory. Seeing those empty corridors now wrenched my heart. This was the last time all of us stood here together, in this corridor, whispering to ourselves. Tomorrow when we come here, we would no longer be a part of the life that lives on this corridors. Tomorrow we would be spectators, watching stories spanning in the corners of this place.
And in some corner of this big building, I found you. Somewhere in this huge maze, I found you, looking at me like I am the most precious belonging of yours. We certainly weren't meant for each other. I was Miss Imperfect, you were Mr. Cool Guy and yet somehow magic happened. May be the Fates decided to string our destinies together, or may be we were the victims of Cupid's faulty arrow. But we met and we fell. And in the hallways of this huge building, in the corners of the enormous labs, our hearts decided for us, decided to bind together. We fought, we laughed, we kissed and we made up, and each of our little story began in the midst of this building. Ours wasn't a love story, it was a saga, or so we believed. However, knowing I could never walk on this floor with you again, knowing that our hidden romances, those secret picnics on the rooftops had all come to its end, broke my heart. I don't know in what part of my tomorrow will you fit in, but my yesterday is filled with you and that wicked smile of yours, that heart warming hug of yours, that intense voice of yours, and those piercing eyes of yours.
Can I move on from the cement lanes of this building to the concrete lanes of life? I might find my place in the world someday, but where in will I stand in their lives; my friends and him? They say goodbye is the most difficult word to utter. As I stand here today, engulfed in the warm hug of my friends, I know how true it is. How can I ever say goodbyes to these memories, how can I ever replace them? I look at my friends, each one them fighting tears on the verge of explosion. I drink in their features, trying to remember them just as they are, carefree and cool, without a single worry in them. Tomorrow when we meet, these eyes will be full of exhaustion, having faced the real world. Tomorrow they won't be the same person as they are today, neither would be I. So, we gotta treasure this moment when we are we, without inhibitions. He isn't here today, I know he won't come, I know he won't say goodbye. He says there is no such thing as goodbyes. And may be he is right, may be he and I, we will never say goodbye. But today changes everything we had for the last 5 years. Today we venture out into this world, trying to make our places, in the world and in each others worlds.
And so we walk out, hand in hand, my friends, my family for so long, exploring for the last time, this place we called home for 5 years. This is the last time we do this, and this time we walk really slow, because we know, at the turn of the corridor the true world awaits us, talking us in different paths , where we can't walk with joined hands anymore.
