The older I get, the faster time slips away from me. It seems like just yesterday that I was starting university, new books in hand.

I made the mistake of purchasing a big, bulky cool-looking 5-Star padded binder. I pictured all those 5-Star ads on TV, the one with trendy university students talking and mingling after class, then heading off to frat parties or beer gardens. Anyways, there I was, first class on the first day, headed into my first lecture. Much to my dismay, the desks were the little fold-out kind, about the size of a pocket novel. I spent the entire lecture wrestling with my humungous binder, dropping it on the floor, and trying to scoop up my scattered papers without attracting any attention. As the lecture wore on, my writing began to scrawl all over the slipping paper, and my face grew redder and redder. I can recall shopping for back to school clothes, trying to anticipate what university students would wear to class, miscalculating grossly, as I bough stiff leather slides and a pencil jean skirt. I remember all too well the pain of that outfit, sweating in the early fall heat, and trying not to limp as my brand new shoes blistered and bruised my feet.

And then on to second year, I, another year older and much wiser, felt so cool. By this time, I knew the ropes. I bought small coiled notebooks, easily perched on the tiny desks. I filled my wardrobe with sweatpants and shirts, perfect for layering and for those misty, rainy fall days. I adopted a jaded, blase attitude, perfect for the second year student, I thought.

Now, I sit heading into my 3.5th year, and it all seems like a blur. The more I know, the less I know. I no longer feel like I'm "cool" or "superior." Rather, it is quite the opposite. I have a frantic feeling inside, that I should know something, I should know what's going on, but as time wears on, I have less and less of a grasp on what actually is. I think I finally have gotten the gist of university life. The fact that you never know anything. And when you think you know something, you have only scratched the tip of the iceberg.

But here I sit, and time passes me by. I don't know where it all went. I feel old, and I have barely cracked into my twenties. I went up to school today to purchase my books, and I spotted what had to be a first year. She was wide-eyed, walking with her mother, trying to navigate the campus. And that's what took me back, back to when I began my university career. And made me realize, just how far I have come since then, and just how much everything has stayed the same.