As the trees begin to bloom and the grass turns green, I can’t help but find myself yearning for summer and all the freedom it brings. Only this year, things are different. In a few short days I won’t be starting a long summer full of fun memories and time spent with friends. Rather, I’ll be graduating and embarking on the job hunt of my life trying to nail down a career and a place to live. I know I sound cliché or like an old person, but these four years of college really do fly by.
I can remember so vividly moving in my freshman year. The rush of people running around with boxes, my parents being overly emotional and finding myself feeling incredibly excited and overwhelmed. Fast forward past all the amazing memories, awkward times and struggles of the past four years, and I find myself just days away from graduating and starting a new chapter of life.
If there is one thing I’ve learned in college, it’s not how to write a perfect research paper or how to calculate the market share of a company, it’s that time really does pass you by and you’ve got to hold on to the moment you’re in and enjoy every amazingly painful second of it.
My mom always tells me to live life in the present and on this point she couldn’t be more right. As I look back on my college career, I remember wishing for so many things. Wishing for summer, wishing I wasn’t a freshman anymore, wishing it was Christmas break already so I could see my family. But all this time spent wishing just took away from the moment I was in, and when you get to end you are going to want all those moments back.
Sure college can be full of struggles, hard courses and missing your family. But it also consists of amazing memories, lifelong friendships and a time where the pressures of the real world can’t touch you.
I spent my senior year dying for the chance to feel like an adult and to have some actual responsibilities. I couldn’t wait to get a real job, move into a fancy, grown-up apartment and start my career. Now, with four days till graduation, I can see adulthood isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. It’s full of bills, working everyday with no summer break and being thrust out of your safe little dorm room into the real world where no one cooks for you and you don’t live right next to all your friends.
While I’m still bursting with excitement for graduation, I know I need to savor every last day. After all, these are the last four days of the best four years of my life.
Emily Huxman is a senior Communication and Marketing major. She wrote this final reflection for her Advanced Media Writing course.
