Graduation Goggles

My room now looks quite a bit different than the last picture I posted. 

So it's my last night in Forchheim. I seriously don't know where the last week went. Really, I don't even know where the last year went. I moved to Forchheim on 9/9/10 and exactly 365 days later I will be leaving it. 

We had our ups and downs, Forchheim. Sure you're public transportation is inconvenient and annoying, yes, it's lame that all your shops close at 2pm on Saturday, but I'll never forget the good times I had in the Kellerwald or at the Christmas market, all the friends I made, things I experienced, lessons I learned. 

Graduation goggles are a phenomenon, explained by How I Met Your Mother as:

graduation goggles, like with high school - it's 4 years of bullies making fun all the kids with braces even after the braces come off and they can walk just fine. but then on graduation day, you suddenly get all misty because you realize you're never going to see those jerks again. 

Of course, in this sense it's not that I hate Forchheim and suddenly like it now that I'm leaving. Trust me, I've liked all a long (most the time). It's that I was excited to head off to Dortmund and get to see and experience a new place, when suddenly the graduation goggles popped on and masked that excitement with the sadness of having to leave Forchheim.

This isn't the first time the graduation goggles have come on right before a big move, and it definitely won't be the last - I'm sure I'll be strapping them on next summer when I leave Dortmund - but that doesn't make it any easier to leave. 

So I guess this is just my way of saying thanks for the great year, Forchheim!