The last normal day
It didn’t start any different
There were no alarms or warning signs
No four horsemen or floods
No signs of the apocalypse
It started with the ringtone of my cell phone
With organic chemistry
With wishing for a second week of spring break
It started like the day before
And the day before that
And the day before that
And every day before that one
Little did I know just how different they all were.
I can tell you exactly where I was when the email came through
When I rolled my eyes and thought it was an overreaction
Developmental Psychology Infancy-Adulthood
The last classroom I would sit in for over a year
The last time I’d be in a full lecture hall for…
Maybe forever
The first of the lasts aren’t supposed to come in March
They come in April when classes end
They come in December when the year ends
But not in March
The last time I’d eat in Holmes Hall Cafeteria
The last time I would study in the basement
The last time I’d live in dorms with people who made East Lansing feel like home
But even more are the small one involving my people
The last time we had “family dinner” like every Thursday before
The last time we complained too much about calculus and english
The last time we talked so long we were almost late to our meeting
And the last time that, muffled in the back, we talked all through the meeting
Then, there was this moment
We didn’t know this would be “the last”
But we had a group hug
Not because we knew it would be the last
But because we cared about each other
Because something was changing
And someone took a picture
Not one of us looks “good”
Not one of us is looking at the camera
Not a single person fixed their hair
But we look like the family we had become
The family that never got a proper goodbye
The family that will never be in the same place like that again
Frozen in time, we are a happy family
That picture is how I remember that day
Thing is, none of us knew that that was going to be the last normal day