I turn 21 years-old in six weeks. I’ve been eagerly waiting for this birthday since I started college. Yet, there are these overwhelming emotions of mourning and grasping for my childhood that I am currently grappling with. I feel prideful looking at old photos and seeing how much I have changed since I first stepped foot on UW’s campus and rolled my suitcase up to Willow Hall, 8th floor in September 2021.
Now, on the top of my MyUW page, it reads in bright red lettering: “Sign up for graduation.” I knew this notice was coming; my 4 year-plan Excel spreadsheet is right on track. But it’s here – the end is coming, the end of an era.
I am preemptively nostalgic about college. There will likely never be another time in my life where I can snooze my alarms, roll out of bed in sweatpants, workout for two hours, and then get coffee at 10:22AM on a Wednesday morning before starting my obligations. I won’t be able to sit in the student section at UW football game again. I will never be able to enter Odegaard during finals week and feel the underlying stress and procrastination that eminates throughout the building until midnight. I won’t be able to introduce myself as “Maggie O’Brien, Junior, Public Health – Global Health.” Soon, I will just be “Maggie, UW Alum.” What am I supposed to put in my Instagram bio now?
I am simultaneously nervous about the corporate world and working 9-5. How will I have time to do all of the things that make me, me? We spend so much time fantasizing about having that first adult paycheck and being able to do the things our inner child has always wanted to do, but when will we have the time to?
These looming thoughts, in addition to incessant conversations regarding the fear of growing older among my various social circles, has consequently led me to the year of yes. This idea started during an admissions presentation last year when a new senior campus tour guide was telling me about how she only decided to apply for this job because of her newfound mindset. She said yes to any opportunity that came her way senior year and discovered new friendships, new favorite coffee shops, and a new sense of self before embarking on her adventures after graduating UW. I have crafted my own bucket list of sorts of things that I want to do before I have to deal with post-college life and having salary pay.
- Go out on weeknights, if that’s your prerogative. Otherwise, host a girls’ night in or a dinner party. When again in your life will you going to be surrounded by 37,000ish students of similar age to you?
- Join one intramural sport. I am currently on an indoor soccer team where I know one person and have zero soccer knowledge. It’s genuinely the time of my life.
- Book one trip with your friends. Vancouver, Paris, a hotel in downtown Seattle.
- Learn one skill that has nothing to do with your professional life. I really wanted to learn how to be a barista. I got a job at cafe in Capitol Hill where I learned how to make the perfect espresso shot, steam milk, and make latte art. I also just put in my two week notice for this job, but it was fun while it lasted.
- On that note, get a funky minimum wage job just for a few months.
- Go to a sporting event that isn’t football or men’s basketball. Become overly invested in this sport, or even a groupie.
- Weekday mimosas or weekday mocktails with brunch. I’ve had a few friends that went to Costa’s every Friday of spring quarter of their senior year, and I may just do the same thing.
- Color your hair a different color. I tried an auburn red moment sophomore year, and I think I might do it again this fall.
- Visit all of the stops along the Link, get off, and explore for some time.
- Or, go to every single building on campus with friends and recall all of the classes you took in each one.
- Take family photos with your friend group during cherry blossom season like a tourist. Graduation photos do not count.
- Do one activity that is notoriously a freshman-only event. This could be going to a frat party, attending the Harry Potter Yule Ball, or sneaking into your old residence hall.
Undergraduate life is truly this odd, once-in-a-lifetime experience where thousands of 18-25 year-olds live within a one-mile radius of you. We live in this bubble where everything we need is at a short jog away. We can become so absorbed with the academics, networking, and career-building part of college that we neglect the social and emotional growth that occurs during these instrumental years. I hope you take advantage of all that this opportunity has to offer you and enjoy the simple joys that come with the flexibility and indepdendence of college. And, I hope you email me (maggieob@uw.edu) if you have any suggestions of other things I should do before I graduate next winter.