BY Oscar Castillo | NEWS EDITOR
For more than four and a half years, I have driven to and from campus, tallying 266 hours on the road. But come this December, I will no longer make that 40-minute round trip.
As I make my final rounds to the Brownsville campus, I think of all the changes that have happened since I began college in 2012.
At that time, incumbent President Barack Obama was running for re-election. The Mayan prophecy of the end of the world was the hottest topic of conversation. (Ironically, whoever wins this election might make the prophecy become a reality.)
Back in 2012, things were simpler. Phones weren’t exploding. You could listen to Justin Bieber’s prepubescent changing voice as you charged your iPhone.
The refugee crisis hadn’t happened. The Boston bombing hadn’t happened. The Michael Brown shooting hadn’t happened. About 33,000 emails hadn’t been deleted. Bragging about sexually harassing women was seen as wrong and not just “locker-room talk.”
The Black Lives Matter, Blue Lives Matter and All Lives Matter movements hadn’t started.
Clowns weren’t seen as a threat to society. Harambe was still alive.
The world hadn’t been introduced to Magic! but everyone knew who LMFAO was. Aloe Blacc rose and fell and PSY broke the internet with “Gangnam Style.”
The University of Texas at Brownsville had just broken up with Texas Southmost College and began flirting with UT Pan American, teasing the idea of a possible “merger.”
With that being said, a lot of tragedies hadn’t happened. One would say things were a lot more beautiful back then. I say things just were.
It is easy to look at the rear-view mirror and think “Damn, I sure wish I was back home,” but you can’t do that if you want to get to your destination. Life’s about riding the road you have to drive to get to your destination. It may not be the one you had envisioned; it may have a lot more potholes and stop lights than you would have wanted, but that’s just the one you have to take.
As someone who has driven for more than 266 hours, all I can say is keep your eyes on the road ahead.
I just hope that the road I take once I graduate is as fun as the one I’ve taken this last half decade.
