Last weekend, my friends and I made the journey into Boston for the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. We had been planning it for weeks and made sure to have everything ready the night before. After a week of events leading up to it, we couldn’t wait, and as chaotic as it was, it soon became one of my favorite days of the semester and the year.
Flashback to three years ago, I was a freshman at Stonehill doing the same thing. I was looking for new things to do as a college student and discovering who I wanted to be at the same time. When March came around, there was a buzz in the air with the warm weather and that feeling of finishing up the semester. We woke up early, took the train into South Boston, and watched the parade with thousands of other people. It felt like the beginning of a new chapter for me. I finally felt comfortable at college and thought it was adventurous heading off-campus and being independent. A year later, that all came to a halt. The year 2020 took away experiences that we thought we would never get back. Being in large crowds, wearing no masks, it didn’t seem possible. Adjusting to a new way of life was really hard for all college students. Social life was basically gone, and the rules set in place were really strict. It was difficult to see an end or even a possibility of anything getting better. Our college experience was being defined by Covid-19, and it was tarnishing memories that we could have had. To me, St. Patrick’s Day defined one of the last big things I did before the pandemic hit.
Waking up two years later at 8 a.m., ready to head into the city, it felt like something was coming full circle. Reflecting on who I was in 2019 and seeing who I am in 2022, I am proud that I have become a more confident person. The day was almost the exact same as that day three years ago. It was beautiful weather, and people were coming together to have a good time and celebrate. Standing there cheering with my friends, I looked around and felt gratitude and appreciation. I felt like I had closure to move on in senior year without that anxiety and stress that I had before. Overall, I definitely recognize that the return of St. Patrick’s Day probably isn’t the most important thing to reflect on in the times of the pandemic, but to me, it symbolized the return of somewhat normal life. I hope to go to many more parades in the future and make more memories moving on to this new chapter.
