Growing up, I can vividly remember the first time I watched “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” I remember thinking at the age of 12 how wildly unrealistic it all was and how no one actually gets to experience days that feel like that.
Yet somehow, after nearly a decade and four years at Ohio University, I think maybe Bueller wasn’t all that unrealistic. Maybe all I needed was to find that magical place like hOUme where I could live out my best “Twist and Shout” parade montage on my days off.
As the last week of my senior year glares back at me, I can’t help but feel that strange ache you get when you realize you’re about to leave something you’ll never experience the same way again.
It feels like just yesterday it was my first day of college, hearing “these four years fly by,” thinking that I had plenty of time. Yet here I am now, reminiscing on Bueller’s words and urging my younger friends to remember that: “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
While I wasn’t calculating how to fake fevers or hijack doorbells like Bueller, my time here taught me to be strategic. I’ve gained valuable experience from my classes and extracurriculars, and I am incredibly grateful for all the relationships I’ve built with professors and advisors along the way.
OU academically taught me more than I expected; however, I feel my biggest lesson wasn’t found in any syllabus.
Sometimes, it’s best to let your professors keep calling out, “Bueller? ... Bueller? ..." while you learn to enjoy the little things in life. Oh, and don’t forget the clammy hands; it’s a great non-specific symptom for skipping class.
In pure Bueller fashion, I’ve spent these four years learning to slow down and take the scenic route. Even though I never thought I’d come to enjoy it, Athens has a funny way of bringing out a newfound love for a small town. I discovered all I really needed was to step outside my Court Street bubble.
My little red Fiat 500 became my own version of Cameron’s dad’s prized Ferrari, carrying me through some of my favorite memories. She wasn’t fast or fancy and never went flying out through a glass garage window, but she helped me explore Athens in a way I never thought I’d enjoy.
On my days off, that little Fiat and I took spontaneous trips to Strouds Run with my two best friends to sit in the sun. We spent weekdays watching movies and having dinner nights on the porch, going to the Fun Barn Arcade, where I’ve won not one, but two, funky plum purple lava lamps. Partaking in Tuesday night trivia with blackberry moscow mules, pool and darts on weeknights to avoid mountains of homework, late-night star gazing on some desolate hill, finding the fun in doing nothing, sitting around a fire with some s’mores and too many other adventures to count.
Thank you, Athens, for teaching me to pause and enjoy the slow life. Thank you for giving me my lifelong people - Abby, Cassie and Bronson - who I truly couldn’t imagine my life without. Thank you for the endless Jimmy John’s, Souvlaki’s and Ginger Sushi runs that fueled more memories than I can count.
Thank you for the family I found in the newsroom, and the post-date-party mornings that made me swear I’d never go out again (until the next weekend, of course). Thank you for helping me find independence, land the job of my dreams and prepare me for whatever comes next.
As I begin to pack up my little college apartment and life in Athens, I keep thinking about the end of the movie, after all the chaos and adventure, where he looks into the camera and says, “You’re still here? It’s over. Go home.”
Here I am now, standing between what’s now and what’s next, knowing it’s time to leave. So, as a final love letter to Athens, I want to say thank you for giving me four years full of an experience that felt just as wildly unrealistic, in the best way possible, as “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.”
And to the next generation of Bobcats to come, please, stop and look around. You won’t want to miss it.
Sofia Osio is a senior studying journalism at Ohio University. Please note the opinions expressed in this column do not represent those of The Post. Want to talk to Sofia Osio about their column? Email them at so325421@ohio.edu.
