While this is my fourth year at Bonas and I consider myself a senior and member of the class of 2025, I did earn my bachelor’s degree in May 2024. I am technically a graduate student, and I am working as a graduate assistant on campus, and oh boy, do I feel old. Instead of walking through campus in tank tops and leggings on my way to the dining hall, I don slacks and sweaters and pack a lunchbox for the office. I teach 14 freshman students about the importance of organization and study skills for their academic success, but what I really want to teach them is to savor each and every “first” that they have here, because the lasts come up way too soon. Â
It never gets easier to say, the fact that this is my last year at St. Bonaventure University. The weight of this statement still stings every time I think about it. Everything that I do seems to have some underlying sentiment, a reason to be sappy at every waking moment (which is not good for a girl who already gives sentimental value to almost anything). I no longer get ID’d walking into my college bar, and the bartender usually knows what I want (water, please!). Houses that would intimidate me as a freshman are now just the places I hang out, and I get to go inside to use the bathroom with no fear of senior boys. Only half of my freshman year friend group remains, and the boys that used to be our campus celebrities are now our friends. Somehow without me noticing, my confidence in myself grew tenfold and I no longer question every movement I make when I’m around others. I live in a house with my six best friends, and we walk to our local bars, restaurants and our friends’ houses. I have many different friends that I can lean on and the loveliest boyfriend. I have everything that freshman year me could have ever dreamed of, and there is an ache in my heart knowing that in 8 months, while these relationships will stay, they will not be the same as they are right now. Â
As I walk through campus, knowing I stick out now as an employee and not a student, I can’t help but to think about everything that led me here to my senior year. Who I am now is a cultivation of the past three to four years of coming-of-age experiences. I am a product of every heartbreak (healed by my girlfriends, always), every Sunday church with Claire, every late-night study session, every Hickey debrief, every roommate hangout and each experience in between. As I continue to get spontaneously sentimental during my senior year about who I once was and who I will be after this year is over, I know that I wouldn’t change a single thing about my time here at Bonaventure. I am so grateful to still have one more school year, and I look forward to the new stories and memories that this one will bring. Â