Today was the last day of my General Chemistry 123 lab. I cleaned all my eqipment, all my beakers and pipets and such, scrubed down my lab space, signed the necessary forms, and that was it. I'll never be able to go back to that lab again. After three quarters of going to that lab, seeing those familiar yellow walls, stained counter tops, and antiquated equipment once or twice a week, I'm now done, never to return. Next quarter is Organic Chem, which has it's labs on the 4th floor; anyway I won't even be taking the lab. I'll just be taking the classroom section. The only way I'll get to see those labs again, those simple second floor labs, is if I walk by and look at the windows, where I'll see people much like myself, struggling through the same procedures which I struggled through and triumphed over, so long ago.

Bah. It isn't even really the past yet, and already I'm feeling nostalgia. "-algia" means pain, and "nost-" means a desire to make a homeward journey. I've left my home, the comforting constant of each week for the past nine months, and it hurts, delicately, sublimly. Things will never be the same again.

I have that closing image from the old Carol Burnett show going through my head: an old grey haired woman, slowly pushing her mop across the stage with her bent and patient back. "I'm so glad we had this time together..." croons a melancholy man in 40's style reverie. I shed a little tear: I am so glad we had this time together, and even though I'm looking forward to the adventures of the future, I feel like I've lost something, like I'm lost so many things, which I'll never be able to touch again.