My last college class ever. Earth Science is my only Friday class, and we are a little upset that Dr. Nichols is making us watch a movie.
"What a weird end to our college career," I whisper to Kimi and Ciera.
After class we walk down Caf Lane, a little disappointed at how anticlimactic this last day of college classes turned out to be. Dr. Nichols left class after he put in the VHS about Supernovas. He never came back.
I get into line in front of the Cafeteria with Katrin and my brother. The Caf gets worse and worse as the year dwindles down. Especially for a vegetarian, there are few options, so I grab a veggie burger from the Grill and some potatoes and green beans from the Classics line.
I get a glass of water and make my way to the silverware as I spot my roommate Abby at a nearby table. I step in front of the silverware table, but there is something on the ground. It's wet, and I begin to slip. It's like slow motion. Had I not been holding my water glass in my right hand and my plate and phone in my left, I would have easily been able to grab the table and catch my balance.
No such luck. My feet slip completely out from under me. In an attempt to not fall completely on my butt, I put my left hand out behind me. This means everything I was holding in my left hand goes flying onto the floor. My plate shatters.
I am sitting on the ground next to shards of plate interspersed with veggie burger, mashed potatoes, green beans, and my phone right in the middle of the pile.
I look up at the Dining Hall to see hundreds of faces turn toward me. Not two seconds later, the entire Cafeteria is clapping.
I've been dreading this moment my entire college career. Every time someone drops something in the Cafeteria, there is some sort of applause. I am pretty clumsy, so I was pretty surprised that up until this point I had never had one of these Caf accidents.
Well, this last day of school made up for my four years of never dropping a plate. The worst part is that I have to go back in and get more food. I see my brother in line at the Grill and ask if he heard my applause.
"That was you?" he asks. But he isn't surprised.
After lunch I am still sitting at a table with Abby. Syd and Katrin come over to laugh at me.
"Wait," Katrin asks me. "Did you fall right there?" She points to the silverware.
"Yeah."
"Was there something on the ground?"
"Yeah, there was water or something."
Katrin turns to Syd. "It was you!"
It turns out Syd had spilled just a little bit of lemonade as he grabbed his silverware. When Katrin heard the crash, she wondered if it had been Syd's fault. Of course, the one time I fall in my entire four years at this school, it is my brother's fault.
For the rest of the day, people come up to me and ask if I'm okay. Or say, "Hey, I saw you in the Caf..." Or they just point and laugh.
Thank you, Nicholson Dining Commons, for an eventful four years. I'm not sure I can say you will be missed, but you will at least be remembered.
