Today I submitted the last paper I will write for SSLA. There is no telling when I will get to write ‘The structure speaks through you’ in a paper again.

I was impressed by SSLA’s Red carpet event the first year I came here. People you knew as ‘sits in front of me in Psychology’, ‘gets amazing food from home’ and ‘nice butt’ transformed into singers, dancers, hosts, and nice butts. It was so Bollywood-award-function-like. More than impressed, I guess, I was overwhelmed. 4 years later I still feel the same. Full circles, eh?

I am saying this because, dear SSLA, you said it kills a little to not. Of all the things I expected to miss about you, this was not supposed to be on the top of the list. I miss people hugging every day like they didn’t just see each other last evening. And I don’t only miss the ‘hug someone in the corridor at least 10 seconds longer than normal people do’ hugs, but also the side hugs of the physically awkward. I miss sitting on people’s laps. I miss that time a stranger gave me a hug too long, too tight because she saw me cry secretly in the girl’s toilet. People don’t do it much outside.

2 days ago I ran into a college friend at an event. I had underestimated the joy of seeing someone I used to see every day, one day unexpectedly at a random place. I stopped in the middle of a conversation I was having with someone, ran to her, and flung myself on her. I was with my office colleagues. My colleagues get uncomfortable even spelling PDA. So I was wondering if as a working (serious) woman I need to reconsider this jumping-on-people-to-squish-them business.

But yesterday, when I went to college to get some documents, I saw my Anthropology teacher talking to someone in the corridor. She stopped mid-sentence when she saw me, squealed in joy, and ran towards me to hug me. She hugged me a long hug and she hugged me more before she left. Thank you for the tangible affection, SSLA.

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