Shall I compare OAP to a summer’s day? That sounds about right. It has everything a summer day should have: beer, burgers, and engineers in lab coats.  Oh OAP, it has been a wonderful four years. We started off on a rocky first step, when as a green 17-year-old, I tried to breech your closely guarded entrance for an alleged “bottle of water” and was turned away, embarrassed. But I kept it together, played it cool, and that following April, I finally convinced you to trust my ID and let me in.  Since then, every OAP has been like the first: the best place on earth.

When OAP is running, school is either over or hasn’t gotten hard yet. Coincidence? I think not. OAP has given me so much in the last few years. It’s a place where you can soak up the last few hours of warmth before the cold Canadian winter. It’s also a place where you can run into all of your friends in one place, which really makes it a productive and efficient use of your time. OAP brings the party to you, offering sustenance and the invaluable liquid courage necessary to slip back into the school year.

But while I know that I need to appreciate and value what we had together, I’m aware now that our time is coming to an end. This was my last back-to-school OAP. I knew that it had to end eventually—where I’m going, there’s no time to waste sitting around enjoying myself! There’s no room for outdoor beers and daytime debauchery on the other side of graduation. But for now, I’ll hold onto my last few red tickets and my last few minutes of juvenile fun. As long as you stay relaxed and cheap, I’ll continue to remember you fondly as the best place on earth.