Feature

Dandelion Seeds

Sabrina F Ahmad

And so we talked all night about the rest of our lives
Where we're gonna be when we turn 25
I keep thinking times will never change
Keep on thinking things will always be the same
But when we leave this year we won't be coming back
No more hanging out cause we're on a different track
And if you got something that you need to say
You better say it right now cause you don't have another day

This was a conversation we had countless times, sitting in the cafeteria, laughing and joking between classes. The careers we'd chase after our undergrads were over. Whether the couples in our circle would still be together for the long haul. Whether we'd send our kids to the same university we were sitting in right now. With several semesters still ahead of us, the future stretched out like a highway to a bright future, and we were journeying together.

Four years later, we reach the fork in the road, where each of us has to take his/her own path, and we realise, woah...we never saw this coming!

The friendships that form during the university years, especially if you happen to be studying in a private university where bonds are formed and broken over the space of a semester, are probably the most fragile and yet uniquely beautiful.

Cause we're moving on and we can't slow down
These memories are playing like a film without sound

Standing almost at the end of my undergraduate programme, I can't help but look back at the different friends I made over the past four years. From the moochers who simply wanted to copy notes, to the 'inseparable buddies' that bonded over a field trip and gradually faded away from lack of contact, I've seen a whole spectrum. Unlike the school years, where you're sheltered by unvarying routines and teachers telling you every step of the way what to do, university life is a wilderness of decisions to be made, cut-throat competition, constant pressure, and you're on your own. This is where you learn who your real friends are; the ones who will stick with you through thick or thin, and will stay by your side even when you no longer have common courses together.

So if we get the big jobs
And we make the big money
When we look back now
Will our jokes still be funny?
Will we still remember everything we learned in school?
Still be trying to break every single rule

If the transition from school to university was a frightening one, what awaits one in the 'real' world once one has left academia? Suddenly, skiving classes and dropping semesters is not an option anymore. Gone are the endless addas, the light-heartedness. Buried under an avalanche of deadlines, presentations, should's, could's and responsibilities. What happens to the university buddies then? Does the relationship survive the long estrangements caused by differing life choices that pull us further away from one another? I can only wonder.

I keep, I keep thinking that it's not goodbye
Keep on thinking it's a time to fly
And this is how it feels

I've seen the brooding faces of the senior students, those on their internships, preparing for graduation. The same faces that cursed the drudgery of classes, exams and assignments now expressed emotional inertia, and didn't want the campus days to be over. I've seen them crying over their friends' shoulders, refusing to let go. I didn't understand it then; but I think I'm beginning to.

So if you've got a few semesters left before you graduate, and a close bunch of friends, cherish every moment as if it were the last. You'll miss them when your friends scatter like dandelion seeds in the wind.

(Lyrics from 'Graduation (Friends Forever)' by Vitamin C)