Goodbye to Yesterday L ike a great flock of birds we floated out of the Benson in our billowing caps and gowns, and my eyes stung in the hot May sunshine. At least, I blamed it on the sun. Standing on tiptoes, I strained to see over the heads of those who surrounded me in alphabetical order - strained to find the six special and familiar heads among the swarm of generic caps and tassles. Only two hours earlier we had dressed together, all seven of us in one room. We seven friends. We had put on the heavy, musty black gowns and piled on someone' s bed for a picture - all of us laughing and being silly, and ready to kill the first one who would suddenly become sober-faced and begin to say, "I'm really going to miss you ..." No time for that. Our hearts were too full, like brimming cups. One drop , one lopsided, half-sad smile or one quick hand squeeze would send all that bottled, excited sadness sloshing over the rim. So we were rough with each other, pushing, tickling, making fun, but lovingly handling the worn jokes as we mouthed them perhaps for the last time. I had looked at each one of you in turn, there as we were getting dressed, and had had a hard time keeping up the facade - laughing with the rest of you. I couldn't stop remembering those late nights at the end of last semester, when we were all delirious from lack of sleep, and "borrowed" a resident assistant's key to steal someone's prized shower thongs, and stood on chairs to rearrange the Christmas decorations in Stephens lobby. I had looked at you six, and seen your faces around a table at Mazzie's - our Monday night tradition. I wanted to be excited about graduation, the summer, a job. But there in that dorm room I had only been sad because we'd never again get to fight about whether or not to change cafeterias en masse, or what to do on a Friday night, or whose turn it was to sit on whose lap , since we all had to squash into one car. You six. You had been such an enormous part of my life here; and after today you would be just a bunch of fond memories and funny stories to tell my children . After today you would be six parts of me, scattered all over America; six parts that, when John Paul Goodspeed- Pine Bluff , AR. Alison Gore- Texarkana , AR. Sociology, family life . Sunshine girl, devotional director for Omega Phi ; Bison reporter ; England campaigns; Dean 's List; National Association of Christians in Social Work; Petit Jean staff ; Outreach ; Society for Collegiate Journalists ; Social Work Club; Sociology Club ; Young Democrats. Julie Ann Grahn- Lakewood , CO . President for Chi Lambda Chi ; Alpha Chi; Art Guild; Bell Canto; Commonwealth Singers ; Dean's List ; drama ; Reader's Theater; resident assistant ; Sigma Tau Delta. Michael Alan Gravois - _New Orleans, LA. Bible. Vice president for King's Men ; spring break campaigns ; CenArk Student Grotto; Theta Psi beau; Dean's List; Friends ; intamurals; Outreach; Timothy Club; Summer Dinner Theater ; Who's Who. Ronna Faye Griggs- House Springs, MO. Psychology . Transferred from Meramer Community College. Chi Alpha Rho ; Alpha Chi; Dactylology Club; Dean's List; Psi Chi. Andrea Lee Grimm - Auburn , WA. Psychology, office systems. Athletic director for Phi Delta; Bell Canto; Commonwealth Singers; HUF : intramural all-star, volleyball , softball. Teresa 0. Grimett - Indianola, MS . Nursing . Transferred from Mississippi Delta Junior College; athletic director, historian for Tri-Sigma Delta; Carribean campaigns; HSNA, intramural all-star , jacket; Lady Bison ; Sigma Epsilon Chi. Steven Lee Grissim - Brentwood , TN . Marketing . ICC representative , president, executive council for Titans; Friends ; HUF; Marketing Club ; SAM. Jeffery L. Grow - Coeur d 'Alene, ID. Computer science, youth ministry. Vice president for Sigma Tau Sigma ; Chorale. Suzie Louise Gumbs - Christiansted, Saint Croix. Barbara Echols Gunter- San Benito , TX . Psychology. Ju Go }u; Dean's List; Pi Gamma Psi . Stephen Paul Gunter - Ferriday, LA. Donna Jane Gurchiek- Terre Haute , IN . Social work . ICC representative, devotional director for Ju Go Ju ; Italian campaigns; College Republicans ; National Association of Christians in Social Work ; Social Work Club. James A. Gurchiek -Terre Haute, IN . Special education. Sub-T 16; Dean 's List; ASEA. Amy Jo Hall - Burkburnett, TX. Accounting . Theta Psi. Dean 's List; intramurals, all-star ; intercollegiate softball; All-AIC; Pi Gamma Psi ; Resident Assistant. 230 Seniors torn away, would leave me bleeding internally, I knew. So as we streamed out of the Benson in alphabetical order, I hopped up and down trying to find your six individual yet, somehow, corporate heads. Only two hours earlier we were laughing and touching, but suddenly I felt trapped in a plastic bubble, already miles and miles away from you. Panic made my pulses pound until I glimpsed you, clustered on the steps. Mumbling apologies, I pushed my way rudely through the flock of gowns until I tumbled intp your circle and stood there, panting and relieved. We were serious then. It was over. Our parents hovered in the background, anxious to get us packed up and on the road. Assorted kid brothers and sisters fluttered around the perifery of our circle, but we barely noticed. My eyes stung- not from the sun. We didn't say much, till one of you made a stupid joke - one we'd told each other thousands of times, till it had lost all humor except by connotation. Funny, that joke never made me cry befbre. 11t - Sherry Daniel
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