Tangets on Time

Today was my last day of work at Target for the summer.

Oh how bittersweet.

I actually love my job.

Even if I "just" cashier.

I love the people I work with, and the people I interract with.

It's great.

There's a reason I've worked there for six years.

It was a good day of work.

Worked with some good people,

Said some goodbyes,

Got a handful of hugs and good wishes.

And best part?
I had lots of contact with some of my Prucha Ladies today.

It was kinda weird.

I happened to be on break when three of my staff members called me.

They were all together, they didn't all call me separately.

Although that woulda been a cool coincidence!

And then a couple were texting me today too.

It just made me suuuper excited to get my butt back to campus.

To get back to my girls.

And then it hit me:

I'm not going back to my girls.

I'm not going back to my staff.

My work in Residence Life is done.

No more RA business.

No more HM business.

No more residents.

No more programming.

No more staff meetings.

No more staff.

I wanted to cry.

It finally hit me that it's over.

That this year is going to be extremely different.

No more nights staying up till 1am with my staff laughing about absolutely nothing.

No more quote boards filled with {mostly} inappropriate, but oh-so-funny staff quotes.

No more 1-2-1 meetings with my girls.

No more staff meetings on monday that end up going till 11 or 12 cuz my girls stay late and talk and goof off.

No more staff.

It's going to be incredibly hard for me.

To the point where I almost wish I wasn't living in the hall this year.

I stayed because I just didn't have the heart to leave.

And now, I think it's going to break my heart to stay...

...to watch another staff take over.

To watch another staff make memories in our apartment.

In our office.

In our building.

I poured my heart and soul into that building, into those girls, and now it's hit me that I have to pass the torch.

Perhaps to some I may seem to be dramatic,

but this job, it changes you.

It defines you.

It molds you.

And now I feel almost purpose-less.

And as I was driving in the car after work, on the verge of tears, wanting to rewind time to be with my staff, I started thinking about time in general.

It just goes so flippin' fast.

I know we hear that all the time,

How time always flies.

But I don't think we ever really look long-term.

It's always things like:

"Man, I can't believe summer's over already!"

or "Man, it's already Christmas-time!"

But we never seem to look beyond a year...

It's hard to think how I'm finally becoming a grown-up.

How I've finally reached this part of my life -

And I don't even know how I got here.

In less than four months time I'm going to be a {wife}.

Can you believe it?

And in less than a year, I'll be graduated from college.

And soon after that, I'll be a mom.

Crazy, huh?

I swear, just yesterday I was wrestling with my brothers.

We were playing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with my dad on his bed.

I was April, kidnapped by my dad, the big, bad Shredder.

Just last week I brought my dad into my kindergarten class for show-and-tell.

Just the other day I was learning how to ride a bike.

And now look at me:

Planning a wedding,

Saving money for a house,

Graduating college,

Talking about babies.

Is this really happening?

When we're little, we always talk about how excited we are to grow up.
We have all these big hopes and dreams.

We want to be astronauts, veterinarians, and movie stars.

We couldn't wait to grow up.

And then when it finally hits us that we actually are growing up, we want to rewind the clocks.

Life is scary.

And it's hard.
And it's full of change we can never escape.

There's never going back.
There's never even pausing, standing still.

We are constantly moving forward.

Time is constantly slipping through our fingers.

It's impossible to grab.
Impossible to keep from slipping away.

Which is why it's so important to make the most of every moment.

I'm going to miss my life in Residence Life insanely much.

It's going to break my heart to let it go.

But I will never forget the times I had, the memories I made.
I will love all those Prucha women forever.

They changed me, in so many ways.

Prucha Hall defined who I became.

For now, anyway.

Because isn't that the biggest part of life?
Isn't that one of the greatest lessons we learn?

That because time is continuous, so are we?

We get to continually grow and discover ourselves.

We get to continually move forward,

Live new experiences, make new memories.

Let there never be a dull moment.

Make every moment the best moment of your life.