I don’t eat the ends of hot dogs. I split chicken fingers in half and eat them from the middle to the end but then don’t eat the end. I only eat egg and cheese in my breakfast tacos and don’t finish the ends. Clearly, I don’t like the ends of things, and these are just three examples.

I’m sure you are wondering how the hell I distinguish a beginning from an end on any of those things. My friends interrogate me on it every time they see me eat, and I honestly don’t have an answer for them. I pick a side and bite into it, and that is the beginning. The other side is the end. There is obviously no scientific backing to it, and I know I’m real weird for eating things like that, but it’s how I’ve always done it.

I’ve been a picky eater my whole life. I was always that annoying kid who wouldn’t eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches the school handed out on field trips, or the friend that parents prepared slight separate meals for when I would come over for dinner. I was never rude about it; I was just very particular about what I ate.

And I’m still very particular about what I eat. I eat some vegetables now (big step). I don’t ask for sauce on the side with my spaghetti (Also, a big step. I hate the chunks in sauce.). These may not sound like big steps to a normal person, but they are crazy for me. However, even with all the changes I’ve been making, I still don’t eat ends.

At this point, you are seriously wondering what the heck my eating habits have to do with being a senior, right? Well, it all comes down to the beginning and the end.

I have an issue with ending things. Simply, I want the good to last forever. On some subconscious level, I guess that is why I don’t finish some food. I absolutely adore breakfast tacos, but if I completely finish a taco, then it’s done with completely. If I don’t finish it, then I can go on pretending it’s not over.  Real weird connection to make, I know. I just hate having to finish the good things in my life, and graduating Trinity is doing just that.

I am ending what has been the best part of my life so far. However, even though I am ending it, I’m also starting a new beginning. Sometimes it is hard to distinguish between the end of something and the beginning of something. But, we just have to pick a side. We have to end something to begin something else.

Even though the end has come, we don’t have to forget the good memories we have as we begin the new. (I understand this analogy might be a little far-fetched when compared to food, but please just bear with me.)  I’ll never forget that breakfast taco I had at Taco Taco (the real one, not the fake Aramark one), just like my time at Trinity and the people I’ve met will never be forgotten.  Clearly, this is corny as f***, but you get the point.

I have no idea what my new beginning holds for me, but I am sure as hell glad I chose a different beginning at Trinity four years ago. I might even eat the end of a hot dog on graduation day. Oh how college makes people do crazy things.

So, thank you to my parents, the Bachelorette Pad, the Murch Crew, my lax girls and the Trinitonian staff for not only putting up with my picky eating and actually eating the ends of my food that I refuse to, but being there with me to start the new beginning.

Lydia Duncombe is receiving a Bachelor of Arts in communication with minors in sport management and communication management.