Soon, we will all be heading off in our own directions for the summer and, for some of us, for the rest of our lives. The college experience has had us all intertwined in its grasp and life has never seemed more wonderful. I, for one, will never forget this experience. But with those fond memories comes a certain disillusion. The thoughts of errors and mishaps that could have been handled differently or avoided all together flood my mind.

In most cases, those mistakes leave us with just the memory of the particular event to fret about. But in the extreme cases, something else remains. The social construct that won't let you forget about what happened -- the grudge.

Why do we hold grudges? I think at least everyone has held one at least once. It sometimes seems to be the right thing to do. Seeing the person who has wronged you might make the hair on the back of your neck prick like needles, and every muscle in your body might get tense.

It is the root of violence in so many situations, and if not violence, the harshest display of vocal abuse known to man. This tension not only affects the people involved, but those surrounding them as well. It can destroy friendships, degrade relationships and even pit brother against brother. The feeling of hurt people can hold in their soul can keep a distance between various people. A person can feel that the same amount of pain and anguish he or she feels must be returned to that other person. The only answer seems to be an "eye for an eye." But this situation just ends up leaving everyone blind.

I think grudges and the emotions involved are healthy, in a way. I do not think that everyone should hold on to his or her grudges though.

I have observed that the underlying reasons for some grudges are very superficial. In these cases, the act of holding the grudge seems wasteful. Here we are in college, spending our time meeting people and running into lots of sticky situations. Things are going to come up and we all are going to find ourselves having distaste for certain individuals. I myself have never hated certain individuals more than I have in college. All through life you will meet people that you will not get along with and in some cases, very harshly react against. The emotion of hate is strong and encompasses your body's physical form, creating tension and discomfort. In the midst of all this hate and anguish, It becomes apparent that the grudge is holding you.

I am one of the fortunate ones to be graduating college in May. When I leave this town, my grudges will be staying here in State College. It seems wasteful to keep a college grudge for the rest of your life. No one has figured out life at this point. Trial and error have just begun in many of our lives, so how can you hate the plight of ignorance? If I knew then, what I know now, things would have been different. Ignorance, in the purest sense of inexperience, plagues us all. It is easy to get mad at people when they do you wrong. In some cases they might not be ready or experienced in the situation at hand. It is easy to think we are all adults and make no mistakes and live these perfected little pseudo-lives. But in reality, most of us have only lived on our own for a few years and life is still building with responsibilities and challenges. The emotions and memories will not leave my mind, that I swear, but why spend the rest of your life contemplating your hate for something that happened years ago?

So as we all leave for the summer, or for the rest of our lives, I hope all our grudges will stay here. Even better, we could try to resolve our differences and salvage a relationship. But in most cases I have seen, it is usually the bigger person that wants to resolve the problem and the littler one, remains silent and distant. In those cases you can only leave with the solace that hopefully some day their own hate will diminish and they will leave State College, both mentally and physically. And possibly you may run into them down the road, and everything will be ok.

Time is ticking in these three weeks we have left. We have time to try to make some relationships last. They say some things never change, and they are better left alone. But I think sometimes, they are never given the chance.

Take it.