My final fall semester of college is knocking at my door. It is an odd feeling to slowly realize that after all these years of nonstop education, it will all come to an end. This time next year, I will not be buying new pencils and notebooks – I will be working to make a living. I will hopefully be putting my education to use.
Ever since my freshman year of college in 2019, my experience has been nothing short of a rollercoaster. It has been extremely bumpy, with twists and turns that no one would ever expect. During my first fall semester, my college was shut down for a period of time due to bomb threats and harassment from an outside individual. I remember seniors cheering me up at the time, explaining that something like this has never happened and it would all be okay. After my security and safety were reinstated and we could go back to school, the virus Covid-19 was being brought up in conversations all around me. But I was told not to worry.
Not too long after that, I was being told to pack up my things and move back into my childhood home because of the increasing infection rates in New York City. It was terrifying at the time, but it was also becoming the new normal. I thought I would only be doing Zoom University for the rest of the semester, but that turned into nearly one and a half years of my college experience living on Zoom. There were so many positives and negatives to moving back home, but looking back on the period of time now, I am grateful to have spent so much time with my family and friends. I never would have been able to spend so much time with them and share a piece of my college experience with them without my remote education predicament.
I can look at the positives very clearly now, but while my life was up in the air and I was just taking everything day by day, it was like a rain cloud was following me. Not only was I back home in California, on the complete opposite side of the country from my college, but I was also trying to balance a long-distance relationship since my boyfriend was able to go back to in-person classes. There is no sugar coating how difficult it was at the time. I also realize how my feelings are shared by so many other students dealing with remote education.
One and a half years ago, I never would have imagined that I would be living in my own apartment in New York City with my boyfriend of 3 years. It is truly a dream come true. It has been an incredibly humbling experience moving back into New York City because of how desperately I have wanted to be here. I feel very lucky to be finishing my last year of college here.
I found out last semester that I would be graduating in May of 2022. This was somewhat surprising news to me at the time because that means that I am graduating 1 year early. I earned nearly an entire year of college credit in high school, so I knew that would move up my graduation date, but I am also earning two degrees and I thought that might even things out. I was wrong. I am graduating an entire year early while earning two different degrees.
This news crushed me at first because I had already lost so much time to the pandemic. However, my attitude has shifted into a more positive outlook. There are so many possibilities on my horizon and I am getting only closer and closer to grasping them. Maybe I will go to Graduate school, maybe I will find a job right away, or maybe I will even try to travel to new places. I am excited at all the possibilities and I am so grateful to have Her Campus follow me along for the ride!