goodbye little ants

"And all the little ants are marching, red and black 

antennas waving, they all do it the same, they all do it the same way." 

Dave Matthews Band

If you watch an ant farm, the ants will work steadily all day to transform the mounds of sand into their home.  They will build tunnels and nooks, and make the little container their own.

But if you open the lid and leave the ants overnight, in the morning you will find that they have abandoned their little universe for a much bigger world.

And while we may have much higher IQs than 

those tiny ants, as we graduate the lid will be taken off our little world too. 

We've worked for four years, turning Bloomington into our own perfect home. We've created nooks and tunnels, we've finished projects, aced exams, and mastered concepts.  And tomorrow, when the lid is lifted, we will flee.  We will leave Bloomington for a much bigger world. 

And when we return, we will find that the nooks we studied in in the Union will no longer be ours.  The paths we took to class will be used by other students.  The seats we sat in every single day will belong to other people.  And while it will be sad to see other people ruling our home, the moment will be fleeting.  Because even though the world is much bigger, there is so much beyond our little box of sand.