Over the last 6 years, Rock Hill has been my second home. In 2016, I moved to Rock Hill to start my undergraduate career at Winthrop University and then decided to stay at Winthrop to complete my MA in English degree. Now that I know that graduation is coming up again for me and that I will be starting a Ph.D. program that will require me to move (most likely), I have been compiling a list of things that I want to do before I get my degree and have to leave my college town.
Some of these ideas have come from friends who have graduated before me and from current friends who are also compiling a list of things they want to do before they graduate and move away from their college towns that they have gotten so used to living in.
In Rock Hill, there are numerous locally owned businesses that I am always going to but there are a few more that I want to try out. Starting in the spring, the town of Rock Hill will begin hosting food trucks on Friday nights. I’ve always seen the advertisements around the campus and on social media but have never taken the time to check them out. I plan to try different food from the food trucks and go to a bookstore that is downtown Rock Hill. Since I have been at Winthrop, I pass this same bookstore a few times a week and always think “I want to see what kind of books they have in there” but then never make the plan to go.
This school year I moved in with two theatre majors, so I have been learning more about theatre and performance. I have already been to one show they have been in but before I leave Winthrop and Rock Hill, I want to go to a few more shows that my roommates are in to support them, the school’s theatre department, and the Rock Hill Community theatre.
Charlotte, North Carolina is only 30 minutes away from Rock Hill and I have not taken advantage of how close it is to me as much as I should have since I have been living here. I have had numerous cafes, coffee shops, and bookstores recommended to me that are in Charlotte that I have yet to visit. However, I plan to go to a few of these with my friends on the weekends when we are taking breaks from studying and doing homework.
My school offers so many different opportunities to learn outside of the classroom, and sometimes when I get too busy with schoolwork, I forget about these opportunities that are free. Before I graduate, I am going to attend a few of these lectures and book readings that the school has facilitated and offered to their students. I don’t know if I will have these same opportunities at whatever school I decide to go to for my Ph.D.
Lastly, before I leave my college town, I am going to make sure that I spend as much time with my friends as I can. Some of my friends are planning to stay in Rock Hill while others are thinking about moving to other places in the state and across the country. In a few months, I will not have the opportunity to knock on my roommate’s door to see if they want to watch movies or read together, and I won’t be able to call my friends with last-minute plans to go eat dinner at a place somewhere local. If I do anything on this list before I graduate and move away, it will be spending time with my friends. I look forward to what my life may look like after I graduate and move, but for right now, I am going to focus and enjoy what life looks like now.