For All Seniors Feeling Sad About Graduation, Remember This

Yesterday marked the two-month benchmark to graduation, and today marks the ever impending time of graduation. It feels like it was just yesterday when I was arriving at college for the first time and left on my own to further develop into the person I am today, the person I was meant to be. The countless lectures I’ve sat through and thousands of hours spent doing homework, studying, and working on group projects doesn’t seem to capture what these four years have meant to me.

Priceless friendships have been made, and it is so sad to think of a day when I won’t be able to simply walk across campus to see them. Trips to the dining hall with your floor and then a select group of friends meant so much and had so much importance. We would worry about the simple things like what to wear on a night out or would cry over some dumb boy who really didn’t mean anything.

Each year brought something new, whether it was heartbreak, happiness or learning how to survive through the stresses of balancing school, work, sleep, internships and fun. It is only now when we realize that we’ve wanted time to fly by so that midterms would be over or so that it would be spring break that we’ve forgotten to relish in the time spent studying at the library with our friends, or our study breaks.

Now there are two months until graduation and I can’t help feeling a little nostalgic. All these years I wanted the time to go by quicker so that I could start my “life”, my career and be free of school and of all the tests, homework and stress that goes along with it. Instead of rushing off to class, I find myself reminiscing on my walks to class and I’m not in such a rush for time to go by. When I was a freshman I was so young and could hold the world in my hands, everything was so new to me, the freedom, the experiences and most of all the place.

This is the time when we are busy writing our thesis’, tying up any loose ends and if you’re like me, still trying to find a job for post-graduation and basically trying to figure out our lives. So don’t be alarmed when you find yourself slacking on your homework because you want to cherish the last few moments with your friends, your school and what you’ve come to call home.

In a few short weeks we will say goodbye to the lives we’ve created for ourselves during the past four years, and finally, accept that this chapter is ending. We will start our new lives, finding independence once again and while we physically are leaving something so great behind, we can always bring the memories with us. As we head into the final moments before graduation, give yourself permission to soak up everything, the sights, the smells and remember that you have your whole future ahead of you.