It doesn’t feel real, and I am not sure if it will feel real for awhile. It’s a strange feeling to be so close to such a life-changing event, knowing it’s coming, and not being able to do one thing about it except wait. Graduation is the thing you wait for from the first day of college. Every time you struggle through a paper or stay up all night studying for an exam, you pray for that graduation day to come. It seems like all you want is to finish your degree and get that slip of paper until the day starts creeping up on you. You focus on classes, work, and clubs, and the time passes without you even noticing it. Then, you are suddenly less than one week away from walking across the stage and that day is looming over you.
Don’t get me wrong, I am very excited to finally achieve a college degree. It is a huge accomplishment for anyone to do. But, now that the day is almost here, I can’t stop thinking about everything that has happened in my college career and everything I have learned.
I feel incredibly nostalgic anytime I walk around campus or drive around town. I keep trying to appreciate everything like it is the last time I will ever do it, because it is likely that it might be.
As I go through these last weeks I have been reflecting on everything I have learned as a college student, and I would like to share some of my wisdom with all of you.
1. Friendships come and go, and that is perfectly okay
This has been a hard lesson for me to learn, as I have had many friendships start and end throughout college. I have had friendships end for many different reasons as well. Since people scatter throughout the country after they graduate, it can be hard to keep in touch with friends who move far away. Not that it is impossible, but sometimes life gets in the way and friendships just fade. Sometimes you find that as you learn and grow as a person in college, that person who you thought was your friend just doesn’t fit into your life anymore. It’s good to learn and grow and mature in college and in life, so if someone becomes toxic to you it is okay to move on from that friendship. Overall, I have learned to appreciate the good times in friendships while I can, and not feel too bad when friendships fade for any reason. There are so many people you can become friends with if you do things you are interested in! Find some people who are like-minded to you and have the same goals and morals.
2. Living with people can be very hard
Out of all of the different living situations I have had in the last five years, I can say that only one set of roommates have had absolutely no problems with each other. You learn a lot about someone when you live with them, and you can end up fighting with someone you thought was your best friend over various things like taking out the trash, paying the bills, leaving things around the house, and many more. Everyone is busy and stressed and exhausted in college which adds to the tension that can be there in a living situation. Be very careful in choosing who you live with because it is never fun to not want to go to your own home because you don’t want to see your roommates.
3. Get involved as much as you can
I am not always the most outgoing person, and I have a hard time sometimes putting myself into new social situations. It makes me VERY uncomfortable. I decided that this was something I had to face in college when I decided to just say screw it and join some clubs that seemed interesting to me. I wanted to try new things and build up my resume in any way possible, and I am so glad that I did. I was able to grow a lot as a writer in my clubs because I was practicing different types of writing each week. Most of the people in my clubs were very friendly and inviting, which made getting out of my comfort zone a lot easier. I would definitely recommend finding something to get involved in that you enjoy doing.
4. Explore the city that your college is located in
This is something that I wish I would have done more. My brother suggested that I take a weekend to do everything I want to do again in my college town one last time. It was a great way to say my goodbyes to the town that I had spent so much time in. It also showed me all the fun things there are to do that I should have been doing more often. I would recommend all college students to try to be a tourist in your town because you’ll be surprised by all the great things that you will find.
5. Appreciate the good moments while you’re in them
Take the time to let all the good moments in college really sink in. Appreciate every night you spent laughing with your friends, every time you learned something fascinating in class—just take the time to appreciate all the little experiences of college. College is its own little world, and you will never be able to quite experience the same things over again. Once the college years are over, there is no going back to being that fresh 18-year-old trying everything for the first time.
Overall, it’s going to be very hard for me to move on from college. It has been such a huge chunk of my life where I have really grown up and become closer to the adult that I want to be. I have learned so much in college, from classes to relationships and friendships to jobs and everything in between. It’s going to be hard to leave all the good memories behind as I move on to the next chapter, but I know it’s time. It’s time to say goodbye to college and find out who I am going to be for the rest of my life. And trust me, it’s more exciting than scary.