Enjoy the little things in life. Don’t take things too seriously. Laugh a little – or a lot.

It seems like I’m constantly mourning this year, it being my last year and all. It seems every time I sit down to write something, it’s about how I don’t want to leave Eastern. It seems everything I do, I think, this is my last fill-in-the-blank here – my last retreat, my last Homecoming weekend, etcetera. I’m trying to learn it will be OK to let go.

These things are just the little things in life, right? So it’s no big deal to let go, right? The big things in life are graduating, getting a job, owning a car and a house, marrying, having a family and everything like that, right?

But little things in life should be appreciated, too – appreciated and sometimes laughed at.

Last Sunday I was driving along a country road. It was raining, so my windshield wipers were turned on. All of a sudden, a bird flew in front of me. In a matter of seconds, I first thought it had just flown by; then I feared I had hit it, but I wasn’t sure. Then, up came the windshield wiper with a bird stuck to it. I began to freak out and asked, ‘What am I supposed to do? How do I get it off?’ I was answered with, ‘I don’t know.’ So, great. I decided maybe I could make it fly off if I turned up the windshield wipers. Guess what – that didn’t work. Instead, it just flew up and down faster.

Eventually, I pulled over. Some girls might be fine with pulling a dead bird off of her car, but not me, so I relied on the nice guy in my car while I burst into tears.

It was traumatic then, but it’s funny to me now. It’s a little thing that doesn’t mean anything in the whole scheme of the world, but it was a funny story to tell later.

Some things we really take for granted. Last week I was walking quickly through campus when I realized I needed to slow down. Now, with the weather turning to freezing, I’ll probably go back to working on my speed walking skills, but on that nice day, I forced myself to walk slower and pay attention. Sure, it was just the South Quad – its browning grass, its hole in the ground – but it’s a sight I won’t see every day next year.

And now this weekend, I saw my last Homecoming as a student come and go. I woke up early to walk to the parade. After the parade, one of my best friends and I spent the time before the game buying glitter hair spray and blue and silver ribbons and doing our hair. Then there was the football game. Why is a football game important? If graduating, getting a job and owning a house are the big important things in life, why do we have dedicated players, cheerleaders, dancers and fans who stay all game whether it’s raining or sunny?

The football game was incredible, and those who didn’t come or who left early really missed out. The tension was great; pulling off a touchdown for a win in the last 2.4 seconds of the game was awesome. It was a little thing, but what a little thing!

Even if Eastern had lost, Homecoming still would have been an awesome time because I shared it with some of my friends, those still with me at Eastern and a couple who came back to visit.

Friends are a great gift words cannot explain. They really make the little things in life fun, and the best thing is they’ll still be your friends even when you do have to graduate and move on to the “real world.”

Enjoy the little things in life – or are these things the big things in life? I would argue they are big things and are even more important than the other “big things” in life.