that empty feeling after graduating college

I'm not alone in sharing the general sentiment that college just... ends. It's jarring, abrupt, and without much fanfare (excluding commencement.) I felt it in three parts: the last day of classes, finishing my last final exam and submitting my thesis, and two separate commencement ceremonies. The last day of classes was surreal. I showed up to lecture, got lunch with my mass spectrometry class, went to a friend's thesis defense (all while drinking a heinous concoction of celsius, grain alcohol, and diet mountain dew out of a 1 liter chemical bottle labled "Food Use Only" and "Ethanol".) I got to ring the bell in the Wren building, and that was fun. But besides that, it just felt off. Like there should've been more, but that was it. Of course, we still had finals afterwards. My last final was a take-home exam that i took in the chem building. And just like that, I was done with all my assignments. I smoked my last cigarette in the sunny day outside, and that was it. No more exams for…