I wish I could savour the smell of the air and the feeling I had visiting back McMaster for the first time in May 2020, smack-dab in the middle of the pandemic. “Hey Google play Ribs by Lorde”.
As of April 24th, 2025, at exactly 10:01 PM, I will officially no longer be an undergraduate student. That’s something that is surreal for me to even grasp – what do you mean that I finished my degree? These past 5 years at McMaster have evoked some feelings of deep desperation and a sort of nostalgia that I cannot quite pinpoint. Here is my reflection on how McMaster shaped the person I have become these past 5 years.Â
Starting off strong, let’s talk about student housing. I have lived with such a wide variety of people, to the point where I believe I have the perfect cocktail party anecdote to share for any occasion. The rich experience I have gained in student housing is something that is incomparable to anything else I could have imagined. From the late nights of trying to trap our house mouse and releasing it outside (for it to inevitably end up back in our cabinets), to the early mornings of trying to put the garbage cans out on the curb before pick-up (because we collectively forgot it was garbage day), these are some memories that will stick with me; these were the memories that made me feel like this is what adulthood is about. Â
To my roommates, who over the course of these 5 years, allowed me cry over every single heartbreak, patiently listened to my rants about BIO 2C03 and CHEM 2OB3 (if you know, you definitely know), and gave me a sense of belonging (even if it was short-lived), thank you from the bottom of my heart. My heart is a mosaic of all the memories we made together over these 5 years.Â
I cannot forget to mention the unlikely friendships I made with my professors over these past 5 years. I, like many other university students, forget to humanize my profs. After all, they live actual lives outside of school (talk about the feeling of sonder), and I have grown to love hearing about their lives after they turn on their Outlook email auto-responses at the end of their working day. Learning to not be afraid to attend Office Hours is something I wish I had appreciated sooner; professors actually love talking about their research and courses, and I love hearing anyone talk about their passions and seeing their eyes light up simultaneously. This is the most perfect symbiotic relationship that I can think of.Â
To my lovely professors, thank you so much for making space for me in your offices. A special thank you to my calculus professor, my metabolic biochemistry professor, my linguistics professor, and my biology thesis professor; I wish I could verbalize the feeling of comfort I felt attending your Office Hours, and spending time in your classrooms learning from you all. Thank you for your patience, your encouragement, and for sharing your stories from undergrad. I’m graduating with a Hamilton-Hall-, MDCL-, and Life-Science-Building-shaped hole in my heart. Â
Finally, I think I have to credit my final thank-you to McMaster – not William McMaster, but the physical entity of McMaster. Every single building, every single corridor has some sort of memory attached, and I think that is beautiful. One day, when I visit again, I can walk through the halls of the Burke Science Building and recall the day before my physics final where I decided to watch Derry Girls in a random classroom. I can stroll through the weird hallways of the A.N. Bourns building and recall my desperation in trying to find the room to volunteer as an organic chemistry tutor. I can even find a way to romanticize the two-hour classes in the unbearably cold T13 Building, as I listened to my linguistics professor passionately share her love for the Italian and English languages.Â
It seems weird to thank buildings, but it also feels weird to not give thanks to the place I called home for 5 years. Each building has its own special memories, and without McMaster, where would I have made these memories in the first place? So, thank you to the physical entity of McMaster (and yes, I am including Building T13, contrary to popular opinion).  Â
As I wrap up this article, I am sitting in the Health Sciences Library, and I have this impassable feeling that something so integral in my life is coming to an end. But, as I have been told so often this year, it is never the end, it is only the beginning. My 20s are waiting for me and I know that McMaster will be here whenever I need it the most. We will meet again <3Â Â
