It is with my greatest pleasure to say goodbye to you. People always told me that you would be one of the hardest years in college, but I didn’t want to believe them. I figured they were all just over exaggerating. How hard could you really be?
Well, as it turns out, these over exaggerators were right. Junior year, you have been so mean to me. I mean really, did you have to be that cruel? I spent nights upon nights wondering when you would be done. The hours of sleep I could have gotten but didn’t because I had to stay way up past my bedtime studying for exams should be criminal.
Since I wanted to finish school on time I took extra classes, which inevitably gave me more homework that I didn’t need. You made me think about my future everyday, which, if you didn’t know, is pretty scary. You forced me to change my major to something that I actually wanted to do. I had to join organizations that would actually be beneficial to my life.
You made me learn how to handle my finances like an actual adult (how dare you). I made connections with people that I will probably know for a lifetime thanks to your mean ways. I even learned life lessons and things about myself that I needed to know. I guess what I’m truly trying to say is thank you. Without you, I would have never learned how to manage my time correctly, to push myself to be better than I was a year ago, to be able to find the confidence and drive to pursue a career that I chose for myself and not what others chose for me.
You definitely were hard pretty much all the time, but without the obstacles you gave me I wouldn’t have been able to appreciate and love the rewards that came. So here’s to you; may you always be the year that students dread but appreciate and miss when they walk across that stage into real life.