By Denton Josey, Features Editor

Nothing lasts forever; that’s the way it’s gotta be.

This is what The Arcade Fire kept telling me the other day. And I’ve been thinking about endings ever since.

Think about the things you wish would end. My list includes the war in Iraq, bad dates, NASCAR and Nickelback’s career.

Then there are things you wish never ended. The 1980s, Harry Potter books, those Reebok basketball shoes that could be pumped up, football season, good dates and college – they all end too quickly.

College ending seems not so good. Many of us graduate this year, and we’ll be forced to move on to the next stage of life. It’s not so much fear of real adulthood as it is we’re all certain college has been fun and will be missed. As my friend once pointed out, when is the next time all of your friends will live within two miles?

Strange how four years seemed forever long before college began, but nowfive and a half years laterit went by rather quickly. Luckily, the next stage of life lasts a dang long time, like until retirement. For some folks that can sound like a punishment of sorts, but it doesn’t have to.

Two of my friends graduated in May ’06. While they didn’t wait until college was over to start having adventures, they have been busy enjoying life on the other side of college. They’ve taught school in Kenya for a year, backpacked China and Europe, taught English in South Korea for a year and are wrapping up a trip that included stops to Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, India and Nepal.

Trips like those are not really feasible while going to school, so there’s one point for the adulthood side.

Post-college, aka real life, looks pretty cool to me. True, leaving friends and the schedule college kids keep will be tough, but it’ll be OK.

Except for the debt, you are basically free to do what you want when you finish school. True, you have to work, but if you get a job you really like, it should be rad. And if no such job exists for you because you don’t like your major, just get a job outside of your major – it worked for the guy from Office Space.

For starters, the prospect of getting out of Abilene has to appeal to a lot of people. Plus, everywhere I’ve been, it seems some nice people live there (well, I haven’t been to the North very much, so take caution there), so making friends shouldn’t be too tough and that is what makes life the best anyway, friends.

The end is near – that is true for some of us.

But more good stuff is around the corner, I’m pretty sure.

The end.