Romeo & Juliet

My mom has been doing some spring cleaning and has stumbled upon random goodies along the way. When I was home for Easter a few weeks ago, I found a couple of these treasures on my desk: some books from my childhood, a mixed CD my soccer coach made me 4 years ago, and a couple of DVDs.

But these weren't any old DVDs. On the contrary, these bad boys were the Romeo & Juliet plays we performed 4 years ago in freshman English. We were split into groups and had to come up with a spin on the classical love story to perform in front of the whole class. Unfortunately, Luckily, one of our technically-gifted classmates was able to compile all of the videos on DVDs and distributed them to us all. I watched a few minutes at home and knew I had to spread the joy.

I brought them back up to Gainesville with me and invited a few friends from high school over today. They had no idea what was coming, but, as soon as they saw the DVD menu, the hysterical laughter began. Among the skits were 2 1950's diner renditions, a clash between rival marching bands, a Power Ranger take, and even a very politically-incorrect blind sketch, complete with snarky remarks such as:

Romeo: When can I see you again?
Juliet: Well, never. You're blind.

We were amazed at how different we all look! While 4 years is a long time, it was still cool to see how we've all grown up*. We also reminisced about our first year of college. We couldn't believe Wednesday is our last day of class; where has the year gone? It seems like just yesterday I was cramming all of my belongings into the family van and moving up here. Now it's already time to move out.

I've learned a lot this year in my classes and about life in general. I'm very grateful to have this opportunity to attend such a great institution. Although USF would have been a better option financially, I know in my heart that UF is the only place for me. UF is not only the best public university in the country, it also has an electric atmosphere that sucks every visitor into Gator Nation.

While I'm doing very well in all of my classes, I'm also in a great place socially. I've been extremely fortunate to have stumbled upon my co-ed honors fraternity, Phi Sigma Pi. Through this organization, I have met dozens of people and established true friendships. I've also maintained and strengthened friendships from high school that will last my whole life. Oh, and I'm kinda head-over-heels in love with this kid. :)



I know I have a lot more to learn. And, as the Romeo & Juliet videos showed us, a lot can change over the course of 4 years. But I'm where I'm supposed to be right now and I can't wait to see what the future holds.



*Well, everyone but me. I still look like a 14-year-old girl.