Summer Vacation Begins with a BANG!

Finished, friends! My third year of University is now complete.

I never know when to consider myself belonging to another year of studies. Certainly by September, I shall be "FOURTH YEAR". But for now, what am I? Third Year still? Entering Fourth Year? Just straight up Fourth Year? These are the questions.

So I'm back in Ottawa and headed down to Tobago on Tuesday. Hurrah! I'm excited to see what the future of this summer will bring, and I'm extra-excited to share it with you, internet. It's gonna be a great one, I can feel it!

So not too much has happened. Apart from moving out of Guelph and moving into Ottawa (which I'm still not entirely finished doing...) Easter is really the only thing that happened. It was a lot of fun! I'm happy that Easter was so late this year, because I got to spend it with my family, I think for the first time since I started uni. Dad wasn't here, but everyone else was. Big dinner, big stomach aches... big happiness.

At one point Colin started shooting me with a Nerf gun and I may have taken it and gotten carried away. It was actually super fun and my aim was pretty good. I decided to make things a little more Terminator and brought out the aviators. Clearly, we look pretty badass. And I have no selfie shame, unfortunately. Future Ronnie, please, develop some selfie shame.

So now I think I had better get back to that "moving back in" thing. The clothes are taken care of, but I still have a suitcase full of crap to find a place for...

On that note, I really wish that I could live with fewer things. That modern minimalist lifestyle, y'know? Clean cut, with everything fitting into one bag. Magic. In saying that, Mom and I went to a few thrift stores today and had the best time ever. I just love digging through piles of clothing. I love it so much. I found so many wonderful things! Today's theme was apparently loud tropical print shirts and slightly worn 90s GOLD. Not literal gold. Not even gold-colored fabric. Just golden finds. Golden finds.

And now I have to pack. And also finish un-packing.

Three Strikes and We're Out

As of this September, I am an only child.

It doesn't really sound too surprising that though I've known this day would come since forever, it never really clicked. I couldn't even imagine life when all of my siblings entered the brave new world that is higher education. As a little shout out to my fellow youngests, I think that being the last to leave the nest is one of the harder burdens life places on us. A family separated, even on the nicest of terms (like university) is like the leftover scraps from a Sunday roast. Those left behind after the feast huddle together in shared little containers since they don't need the big plate anymore. It's not completely over, they can still be reheated and reunited in the microwave, but it just doesn't taste the same. No matter how close it is you still spend most of your time in the refrigerator.

It's an awkward comparison when I think about it too literaly (sounds like some post-apocalyptic survivor story - screw the matrix, we're really leftovers in the fridge), but right now I feel like the scraggly strips of roast someone left behind on their plate.

In my experience the parents always cry when they drop the first born and second born and so on off at the campus, or worse (and in my case) the airport. It's the younger siblings job to look on proudly, with a smile that says 'Good job! You finally made it!' The parents will always have a harder time than the siblings. I've never been alone to deal with the parental aftermath of saying goodbye before. I came home from school and my parents were sitting around, saying nothing. I didn't figure out why until I said something and discovered the terrible echo in the house.

Last weekend we moved me into my second brothers nicer, brighter, and bigger room. I still turn the wrong way at the top of the stairs, but I'm slowly adjusting. It doesn't look like my brothers room anymore, but my ownership of it feels weirdly temporary. I suppose it is; next September my mother gets to cry her last baby goodbye. In some ways I see this as a good thing. In most ways I see this as a good thing. Other times I don't want to think about what it'll be like for my parents, that boundless pride mixed with overwhelming sadness, and dusting off another empty room every once in a while... Progress is progress, however, and growing up is impossible without the crucial 'moving on' phase. Still, I wonder how they'll fight the echo when I'm not there to be loud.

We spend a lot more time together now, I think. We watch shows (V, currently). We invite people over for dinner. We don't play cards anymore (something that was once a nightly ritual for my family). Euchre is a four person game.

It's not all doom and gloom; like I said, we hit the microwave every now and then with phone calls and the wonders of Skype. But there's an awful lot of fridge time... Then again, it's only September, and the perks of being an only child (the disappearance of the want/need barrier) are a nice comfort.

As a side, I give you a view from my new bedroom window. It looks far more impressive in real life. Still, only in Trinidad, eh?