Peace out, Reno

I can’t believe it’s over.
In about five hours I’ll wake up and pack my car. Then I’ll take one last lap around the U – Journey blaring, obviously – and head back to Wells.
After five years, my time in Reno is done.
I spent my last night in the Dusty Dirty watching The Dark Knight (it’s orgasmic, by the way, but in a really dark way) with Teal and her friend, but I couldn’t bring myself to go to sleep when it was done.
So I drove back to the university and stopped at a little park off Socrates on University Ridge.
The park overlooks the whole city, and I used to go there a lot when I was a freshman to think (or drink, or try to get laid).
I walked down to the edge of the park, sat on a rock, and stared at the downtown skyline as the thunder cracked around the valley and rain poured down, thickening the air and giving everything a fresh scent.
It’s so strange.

I see the lights and hear the traffic and know that while I’m watching thousands of other people are going through the same things as me.
And that’s really the hardest part about leaving Reno – the people.
Oh, I do love this dirty, seedy city, but it’s just a city.
When I think back on my experience here, I think of the people.
When I pass that house on Ibis, I see all the house parties I enjoyed during my first two years. When I see Sterling I remember the night Casey and I walked in between all the swarming cops with beers in our hands, then stopping to chat with our buddy Lee a few months before he died.
I see downtown and remember all the Awful Awful runs I made with the dormies, and, of course, the drunken debauchery with Brian, Dave, Scott, Ty, AJ, Dylan, Elliot, Stefan, and, well, you get the idea.
I’ve met the most amazing group of people in the last five years, and I’ll never forget them because we made the transition to adulthood (sort of, anyway) together.
Now we’re all spreading out, doing our own thing, and it makes me sad.
I wish it wasn’t over, but I know my ride here is done one way or the other.
Still, even if I couldn’t change a thing, I still wish I could have it all back to experience again.