The Closer It Gets

I’ve been dreaming about this moment for as long as I can remember. Sitting on the grass, hearing the speeches and memories about each and every single one of them. Watching the tears race down their faces, not knowing if it was because of happiness or sadness; perhaps both. It all seemed so unreal; so far away. I never understood the seriousness, the excitement, the sadness, or the nervousness of it all until now. As I stand months before it, it seems like both a beautiful lie and a bitter truth. I always knew it was going to happen, but I wasn’t ready for how quickly it came to be true.
At times it simply feels like a statement; it’s a fact that comes with no emotion attached to it. Other times, though, it hits like a truck. It’ll swoop me off my feet, and leave me with a million thoughts and emotions rushing through my head all at once. A million things racing a thousand miles per second in my head; not able to fully react, but leaving me with enough time to feel each and every single one of those emotions.
It’s just one of those things that you wait for the longest time to happen, and when it’s almost here, you’re in a state of shock and disbelief. When I tell you that time flies by, believe you me, it truly does.
But what is this thing we all long for? What is this event that seems so real, yet so unreal at the same time? It’s the next step of our lives; the gateway to a new phase. This event is graduation, and as much as I would love to tell you how to prepare for it, I can’t; I’m still trying to figure it out.