There’s something unsettling about realizing your “last semester of college” isn’t going to look the way you imagined. For most seniors, it’s a time filled with countdowns, like last classes, last assignments, last coffee runs before lectures you may or may not pay attention to. But for me, that sense of closure was replaced with something entirely different.
On Feb. 21, my childhood home, the one I had just inherited, was destroyed in a house fire. In a matter of hours, everything familiar was gone. The place tied to years of memories, routines, and stability disappeared, and suddenly my priorities shifted overnight. School, deadlines, and even graduation started to feel secondary to something much more immediate: figuring out where to live, what to do next, and how to rebuild. Instead of easing into the final stretch of college, I found myself navigating displacement, stress, and uncertainty all while trying to stay afloat academically.
In my case, something as ordinary as a bathroom fan ended up causing everything to unravel. It’s strange how quickly something small can turn into something life-altering. One day you’re thinking about assignments and graduation, and the next, you’re dealing with insurance calls, paperwork, and figuring out where you’re going to sleep. I remember, the night it happened, I was supposed to turn in a quiz for my philosophy class and I was thinking about whether I wanted to do it before or after dinner.
My girlfriend and I had to move in with her parents almost immediately. It wasn’t planned, and it definitely wasn’t part of how I pictured finishing my senior year. I missed classes, not because I wanted to, but because I had no choice. Between searching for a new place to live and starting the fire remediation process, school became something I had to squeeze in around everything else.
Coming back to class after everything felt surreal. It’s strange sitting in a lecture, trying to focus, when my mind is somewhere else entirely. I’m just thinking about paperwork, next steps, or everything I just lost. Catching up isn’t just about doing assignments. It’s about finding the mental energy to care about them again. When your life gets disrupted like that, it’s hard to switch back into “student mode” like nothing happened.
I’ve had to learn quickly how to prioritize, how to ask for help, and how to keep going even when I feel completely overwhelmed. It’s not perfect, and I’m still figuring it out day by day, but there’s no other option. This is the most hopeless I’ve ever felt in my life, but life goes on.
If there’s one thing that came out of all of this, it’s a clearer understanding of who’s really in my corner. My community showed up in a way I never expected. Through GoFundMe support, people I know, and even people I don’t, stepped in to help me and my girlfriend get through this. That kind of support is something I don’t take lightly. It also made me realize how loyal my friends are. The people who checked in, who offered help without being asked, who stuck around even when things got messy matter so much to me. When everything else felt unstable, they didn’t.
I especially wouldn’t have made it through this without my girlfriend, Jackie.
When everything felt like it was falling apart, she stepped up in ways I didn’t even know I needed. She found the apartment we’re living in now. She helped manage the endless remediation steps, meetings, and phone calls that come with something like this. More than that, she’s been my constant. She’s the person keeping me grounded when everything else feels uncertain. There’s a difference between someone being there and someone truly showing up. Jackie showed up for me every single day, and I don’t think I could’ve handled this situation without her.
This isn’t how I imagined finishing my last semester. There’s no clean, picture-perfect ending here. It’s messy, stressful, and still ongoing but, if there’s anything I’ve learned, it’s that moving forward doesn’t always look like having everything figured out. Sometimes it just means continuing anyway by showing up to class, answering the next email, taking the next step, even when it feels overwhelming.
Graduation is still the goal. It just looks a little different now.