I think it would be a fair statement to say that entering senior year brings on a flurry of emotions. Confusion, excitement, fear, the desire for change, the list goes on. As someone who is very introspective and sentimental by nature, entering my senior year has onset numerous feelings about my time in college and mentality of the future. How much I have changed since entering this strange period of time that is college. How it has felt like a factory assembly line molding me into a person that I didn’t know I could be; taking out my hard drive and tweaking my perceptions of the world, people around me, and of myself.
I have changed more in these past years than I ever thought I would, and I feel so grateful to have the privilege and opportunity of college as a place to explore, grow, and learn. That’s what college is all about at its core, the college experience as they say. It’s more than the books you read and the classes you take.
It’s about the people you meet, the perspectives you learn from them, how you choose to spend your time, what ideas you choose to adopt, and which you choose to throw away.
To some extent, I have learned how I want to be as a human in this world. I have learned what’s important to me. I have learned how to handle situations, how to live with people, and how to listen to other perspectives. We as humans are always in a constant flux of growing and learning and changing, but for a lot of people college is the first time where they are able to do that on their own, away from parental influences and outside voices. For some college can be an opportunity to find yourself without a shadow looming over you.
Over the past years I have come to love who I am, I love the people I choose to surround myself with, and I can’t wait to absorb and take advantage of all the opportunities of my last year. I am so excited to see where I am going, but at the same time, there is a lot of apprehension. I don’t know exactly how my life is going to change after graduation, and I am leaving this comfortable bubble where I run into friends on the way to class everyday and have fostered beautiful friendships and memories. The idea of losing something that is so beautiful is scary, but I try to think about life before college.
I never knew what this experience would hold for me.
I didn’t know my random freshman year roommates would become my best friends.
I didn’t know I would memorize every word to track four of the Backstreet Boys because it’s the only CD that works in my roommate’s car. I didn’t know the joy of my Sundays would come from a kickball league I started with my friends. The point is, before entering college, I had no idea what my life would look like, and as I am approaching the end, I again am in this state of flux where I don’t know what’s next. It’s scary, but it’s exciting to know that there’s going to be something different out there for me. That I will find an avenue where I can channel the passions I have developed over the past years, and have the opportunity to grow into who I want to be, and who I don’t yet know I can become.