Con te partirò… It’s time to say goodbye.

I can hardly believe it, but dear readers, almost two years and 57 posts later, this is my last for UpbeaT. Con te partirò... It's time to say goodbye, indeed. I've been writing for the blog since the summer of 2009, and blogging has become such a part of me that I'm not quite sure where to begin with today's post. I've gotten used to sitting down and writing a post on Friday, and editing it during my commute to school Monday morning. It's such a part of my routine that during the winter holidays, I woke up the Monday morning in cold sweat thinking that I had forgotten to submit a post before realizing that hey, it's a Winter Wonderland outside, there's no school, and I'm good. Except now I don't ever have to write a post anymore and it's definitely going to be strange (and truthfully, kind of sad). You know when you get to U of T in first year and you're completely overwhelmed by the size of the university and, as Lori said, at a loss as to how you're ever supposed to find friends? lifeatuoft gave me a place to call my own during the past two years. I never got to meet Heather, who was part of the Original Five, but I worked with Lucy, Mary, Liesl, and Fariya last year, and Shannon, Lori, Dara and Danielle this year. Needless to say, these girls are awesome. Have you ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes here at UpbeaT? Us bloggers meet every week to brainstorm and exchange ideas, and this one hour meeting is what grounded me throughout the good and bad times of life as a student. If there's one thing I take away from UpbeaT, it's the relationships with the people I've met. I've met so many people from different faculties and different years that I wouldn't have met otherwise. For example, fangirling over askastudent led me to interviewing them over at Innis College, and then discovering that one of the askastudents, like I, plays the piano, and we jammed with the rest of the group he plays with after their performance at Hart House just last week. How cool is that? (oh yes, name-I'm-withholding-to-protect-your-innocence, you still owe me a poutine meetup.) Speaking of cool. I was talking to a first-year student the other day, and the topic of colleges came up. She said, "oh yeah, there was this blog series online that I read..." and I was like, "OMG OMG OMG, you mean UpbeaT? I WROTE THAT SERIES" and tried very hard not to flail. It's heartwarming to think that I made some sort of a mark with the blog. I can't help but get the feeling of warm fuzzy small animals* whenever I think of UpbeaT, and I'm really really proud to have been part of a project made of such awesomesauce. And you, dear readers, thank you for being here with us every week. Did you know? We broke 100,000 visits two weeks ago! Seriously. My love to all the past, present and future bloggers and readers, and all the very best. <3 Now and always, Cynthia *Erh, no animals were harmed in the writing of this post.