Through late-night study sessions, heart-to-heart conversations, and the battles we faced – whether in the classroom or in ourselves – we’ve had the time of our lives growing together and fighting dragons we never expected.
Nostalgia, excitement, anticipation, and hope – the end of the school year encompasses so many bittersweet feelings, but the quiet realization that time moves faster than we ever expect it to bring the most melancholic warmth. For some, this is the end of the first chapter, the close of their first year at McMaster; a year filled with beautiful firsts: the first late-night study sessions, the first lecture that sparked a true passion, the first friendships that feel like they might just last a lifetime. For others, this is the final chapter. The last time they’ll walk these halls as students, preparing to step into the unknown beyond university, carrying with them the lessons and love they’ve gathered along the way.
We arrived at McMaster as just girls – eager and brimming with wonder and possibilities, our hearts tender with firsts yet to come. Some of us were fearless and unbound, others were quietly uncertain, unsure what would define our years here. Then, we simply lived.
We learned what it meant to build friendships that felt like home; to laugh until the world around us disappeared, and to find solace in dimly lit libraries. Some of us stumbled into love – sometimes headfirst, sometimes hesitantly – discovering the joy of being seen for the first time and the ache of goodbyes. We sat on the floors of dorm rooms and coffee shop corners, discovering new layers of ourselves; questioning what we believed, what we wanted, and who we were meant to be. We were simply just girls. There were also days that tested us, that demanded more than we thought we could give. Exams tested our endurance, moments of loneliness that made us question if we belonged, and nights spent doubting our own strength. But there were also moments of unshakable triumph – when we wrote words that mattered, when we stood up for ourselves and for others. When we looked in the mirror and saw not just a student, but a woman in the making.
We found sisterhood in stolen moments between classes, in shared glances of understanding when everything felt overwhelming, in the quiet spaces where we nursed heartbreaks and healed together. We cheered each other on, celebrated each milestone, and reminded one another that even on the hardest days, we were never truly alone, and everything, everything always ends up being okay. We sat through 8 AM lectures running on caffeine and determination, and we danced through nights where time ceased to exist. We chased our passions – some that led to lifelong dreams, others that flickered but left their mark nonetheless. We learned to boldly say yes to adventures; to open mic nights where we found our voice and leadership roles that once felt so out of reach. We learned to boldly say no too; to things that no longer served us, to expectations that weighed us down, to paths that were never truly ours. We discovered our limits, then defied them. We lost pieces of ourselves, and stitched them back together to be stronger, wiser, and a little more certain of who we were meant to be. I remember when I so confidently believed in a vision for my university life, and how suddenly it all changed. So suddenly, yet it led to the most beautiful becoming that I would not trade for anything. Many of us came here with a vision of who we thought we’d become, only to leave as someone entirely different – someone we didn’t prepare for, someone we never expected, yet someone we are proud of. No journey was the same, and yet, in all our differences, we are bound together by the shared experience of becoming.
Now, as we prepare to leave, we are not the same people who first stepped onto this campus. We are women who have loved, lost, learned, and lived. Women who have been broken and put themselves back together, who have taken risks, embraced change, and dared to dream bigger. We are still growing, still unfolding, still stepping into the endless versions of who we are meant to be. We leave McMaster not just as graduates, but as women who carry the imprints of every friendship, every hardship, every breathtaking moment that defined these years. Though we may scatter, taking different paths, we will always belong to this place, to each other, to the women we have been and the women we are still becoming, and the friendships that held us strong.
Because the truth is, we are never done becoming. We are never done discovering new depths within ourselves, never done evolving into stronger, wiser, more courageous versions of who we are. The world will try to define us, but we will keep rewriting the story. We will carry with us the lessons of resilience, the echoes of laughter shared in familiar hallways, and the unshakable knowledge that we are capable of more than we ever imagined. To the girls who walked into McMaster unsure of themselves, and to the women who now stand at the beginning of a new chapter – this is only the beginning. The future is vast, and we are ready to step into it, hearts open, minds sharp, and souls ablaze with all that we have yet to become. No matter where life takes us – whether it’s all the way in California, all the way in BC, all the way in London, or still here in lovely little Hamilton – a part of us will always belong here; in this place that shaped us, in these years that defined us, in the sisterhood of women who grew, who thrived, who became.
We also remember that everything – always, always, always – ends up being okay.