Approaching graduation day sparks introspection

by NICOLE BEARD
​Contributing writer

Graduation is in a week. This is an irrelevant fact if you are a freshman, a sophomore, or a junior. However, if you are like me and are a senior, it has hit you. And if it hasn't, it will.

We're done.

Sounds exciting. I can hear all the juniors wishing they were in our place. The sophomores envious of us never having to write a ten page paper or more again. And the freshmen, who could care less and still see college as a long race they have to run.

But maybe those who aren't about to graduate should count their blessings because they don't have that daunting choice ahead of them that we all tend to forget within the four years of college.

What do I want to do with my life?

It's the question we go to college for, and if you are one of the lucky ones, college helps you answer that question. However, the problem remains that even if it helps, you still have to make the decision. So here we are, my fellow seniors. Done with college and left with that daunting choice.

It seems so straightforward. So easily answered. And yet, I have been struggling more with this question in the last three months than I have ever done before. I think it is this part of our lives where everything seems possible and making one choice is suffocating.

Yet, it's at times like this that I try to remember what my mom tells me: "Life is about mistakes."

And here I was thinking that life was supposed to be perfect.

I mean, I want to get the right job, live in the right city, find the right significant other… all at the same time. Isn't that what life should be? I'm finally an adult, so it should be easy.

But that's something college doesn't prepare you for. The uncertainty, the fear, the roads traveled and untraveled. Everyone else makes it look so easy, but I'm here to tell you it's not.

Those seniors who tell you that they are really to leave and be a part of the world? They probably weren't lying to you… in the moment. We are excited. I am excited, but I'm also terrified.

I won't lie to you: I am going to miss college, but at the same time, I'm glad to be making this next step in my life. Yet for the first time, I have no obvious answer. No worn in path that everyone follows. Sure, a job is the next thing for us, but what job and where?

Change is in the air, my friends. For the better or worse, we are in charge of what our lives will be. We can do what we want, go where we want, and be who we want. So enjoy it.

There are rare moments in life where you have as many choices ahead of you as we do now. No connections, no requirements, no one making any more choices for you. And this is where the horror of life descends upon us, because now it is all our responsibilities, all our decisions, all our mistakes.

To all the seniors who are graduating this May, here is why I write this article: to state and to share that you are not alone in your journey into the great unknown beyond college. Though it might have gone by in the blink of an eye, I know that I would do it all again if I had to. So on the day of graduation, when you are in your cap and gown, look around you and see all those who go with you.
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We're graduating. For some of us, we may be the first in our family or the last. We may have just scraped by or have been deemed the smartest of the lot. We may be walking out of here with a degree that will lead to our passion or one that is just the start to our journey. We may have made friends all over this campus or we may have taken all our courses online. But whatever our path here, we are here.  

Graduation is an accomplishment. It's scary and exhilarating, and I know we'll all shed some tears. We can't think of this as an end because it is only the beginning.   

And know you will be missed and this campus has changed because of you. Maybe you don't think so, but someone or something was affected because you came here and you made it here.

Now, it's time to share that with the world. Good luck and congratulations to all the graduating seniors. We did it.