I love Last Day of Classes. I realize that this is neither a thrilling opening line nor a particularly unique perspective. I mean, let's be honest: Who at Duke doesn't love a day devoted to pretending like classes actually ended the day prior and indulging in an hours-long, 6,000-person party, complete with drinks, live music and (fingers crossed) perfect spring weather?
Each of my four LDOCs has been fun in this classic LDOC way. I met a boyfriend at one-the same one at which I rediscovered a liking for Collective Soul previously unfelt since age 13-finished and turned over a few huge research papers on others, and made plenty of friends, photographs and memories, both raucous and otherwise, at all of the celebrations.
But it's a less than typical LDOC that I cherish the most-my fifth. Well, technically the first of five.
See, I decided to come to Duke on LDOC. I was a senior in high school in Greenville, N.C., and I made the short drive to West Campus April 23, 2003-unaware of what an LDOC was at the time-to determine once and for all if Duke was for me.
It was a stunning day, hot and humid with celebratory, slightly inebriated energy in the air. I attended a class, Professor Gerald Wilson's "American Dreams, American Realities," which I later took as a freshman. I hung out in Gilbert-Addoms Dormitory with several freshmen who were plotting their night while engaging in some serious FIFA-playing and early-afternoon drinking. I watched workmen set up the stage for the evening's Wilco and Better than Ezra concert. I watched hundreds of Dukies milling outside, barbecuing, lounging on benches and screaming with laughter.
To me, from classroom to dorm room to grassy quad, it was college heaven.
So I made my decision. I marched to the Duke Store, bought my first piece of Blue Devil apparel (now-way-too-snug shorts that say DUKE across the bottom), got in my car, called my mom as I pulled onto I-40 East and told her, "I am going to Duke. Just thought you should know."
In short, I fell for Duke on LDOC. I know I would have fallen for it anyway; had I come on another day to make my decision, even if the weather had been rainy, the campus void of outdoor partiers or the class I attended less than intriguing, I would have ended up here. I assert this based on deeply held beliefs in fate and in ending up at the "place that's right for you"-beliefs at which my friends who have long thought I'm nuts are probably rolling their eyes.
But I can't ever deny that the enchantment of LDOC sealed my Duke deal, and for that reason, I really do love this day.
So I sit, writing this column, realizing with mixed emotions of awe, sadness and excitement that Wednesday is the day on which I will both remember the moment I welcomed Duke into my life and now bid it farewell.
Funny how things come full circle, how life can tie years and experiences into uncannily neat packages. Here's another example: The day before my first class at Duke, I saw Jason Mraz perform in Raleigh, and now, on the day of my final class, I get to see him perform again.
Life really does follow or fall into splendid patterns. In this case, the patterns are the bookends of my Duke experience: LDOC and Mraz.
Here I could smoothly segue into a list all of the other landmarks in my Duke career, the memories and individuals who have somehow powerfully shaped the last four years into a coherent life chapter. I am pretty sure, however, that these columns automatically fall into the cliché and unread category as soon as those lists start.
So I'll leave it at LDOC, Mraz and my undying, perhaps crazy belief in cosmic forces and life patterns. I think (hope?) these things reveal a little of who I am and of the way, looking back, I view my Duke career as a puzzle, the pieces of which time, fate and luck, along with my own gumption and effort, all played roles in assembling.
Today the last puzzle piece takes its place. Sure, there is an exam to be taken, one more paper to be written and a graduation to endure. But today to me is a conclusion-it's LDOC, the Last Day of College.
I'll miss this home, this experience, this day. I'll never hear Jason Mraz songs without thinking "Duke!" or pass through this last week in April without thinking, "I wonder who's playing at LDOC, and I sure wish I was there." I know there will be other affection and memory (both positive and negative) triggers that I'll feel from a distance-The Chronicle online, alumni magazines in the mail and March Madness, to name a few.
But it will always be the annual arrival of this day in April that will bring me back to this place and my time here, to classes completed, lessons learned and people met. Like a personal letter, in this case perhaps a love letter, LDOC will always be my Duke salutation and farewell, as well as a constant, tangible recollection I can unfold in my brain to remind me of all that these four years were.
Seyward Darby is a Trinity senior. She is the former editor and current editorial page editor of The Chronicle. She would like to note that there will be a kamikaze meeting on the floor tonight and that Steve is definitely fired.
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