Finals Week

This is finals week at OSU, the last regular school week until late September. I get used to the rhythm of the days and weeks during the regular part of the quarters, and I'm always a bit startled by how the daily rhythm changes during finals. It's particularly notable during the last week of spring term, because people are out in the milder weather, rather than holing up when they can, because they're partying louder and harder, and because during the last three days of the week people are finishing up and leaving town. By Saturday, this area will carry a sense of post-apocalyptic abandonment. Sunday, there will be a brief flurry of crowds and noise during graduation, and some noisy partying in the evening. Monday it will seem, in this part of Corvallis, as if the human race is extinct. And within a couple of days, I will come to prefer that feeling.

I don't know who, if any, of my young friends are graduating this term. I do know that a Turkish doctoral student in civil engineering is expecting to defend soon, and if I recall correctly, return to his homeland in the next month or so... I'll miss our conversations. But I think many of the folks here are either expecting to stick around for the summer for work and/or summer classes, so at worst, I won't see them until next fall.

So compared to the end of most school years, where I'm torn between happiness with my friends' achievements, and and sorrow at saying good-bye to them, the end of the 09-10 year will be an easy one.