Hey everyone! Welcome back to campus. It’s that time of year again. For some of us here at the U of R, it’s the last time, the last September we’ll be packing our bags to go to school. Many of us don’t know what the future may hold, but are certain the days of languishing on the academic quad, nights of cramming in the library, and endless dinners at Danforth are coming to a slow but sure end. I am one of those people, a senior this time around (finally), and I have a constant awareness that as the months pass by, as the year dwindles and then restarts in January, so my time as a college student expires.
This entry marks the first in a series of posts I intend to write based around the idea of senior year of college, the lessons we have learned, and a new chapter in the lives of myself and my peers. Most of us were born in 1990, heard our parents talking about Clinton’s scandal at the dinner table between games of Kick the Can, wondered about the change to the new millennium, and had just breached adolescence when the Twin Towers fell. Some would call us the 9/11 generation, the Internet generation, Generation Y or Z. We call it all we have ever known.
Many changes in society, education, and the economy have surfaced over the past decade that served to shape our development in unique ways. There are also new sources of inspiration that we are only just discovering. At the risk of navel-gazing, I hope to comment on some of the issues that I have encountered or experienced and what they mean for our approach to the days ahead.
I am excited for all my friends to take their hopes and abilities in ever new directions and heights. I wonder how we will all end up twenty years down the line. But too much of a forward outlook makes one forget the present, and I will be as completely immersed in campus life and enjoyment for as long as I can. Over the last three years, I have laughed until I cried, cried until I laughed, and made too many mistakes or ill-fated decisions to remember. I have also grown up.
I have heard that a senior in college already has one foot out the door, and I understand why. Becoming (or remaining) too attached will make it harder than it already will be to leave this university environment. I hope that we will be able to balance relishing the heady days of 21+ with preparation and planning for our lives ahead. I realize that we are not the first, nor will be the last, to attempt this. But for right now, let me just say that I feel supremely lucky to be here with all of you, especially after coming back from a semester abroad.
It’s going to be a good year, the fun is already beginning. Any advice I can share, I will. It’s a pretty wild world we live in. Stay with me, and good luck!
Always,
Marina