This place where you started at looks and feels so different now. The cafeteria food no longer surprises you. Being late to class no longer feels like the world is ending, or maybe it never did. Getting less than six hours of sleep has become so normal, that it has now become expected. This place where you have spent nine months out of the year has turned into a home, with your best friends sometimes as close as the room next to you. I bet you never thought this place could mean so much when you first got here on move-in day your freshmen year.
By now, you know where all of the best food places are, you know the quickest routes to class. You know about all of the secrets throughout campus, feeling like you have come so far since freshmen year. You have fallen into a routine where you only go to certain bars depending on what day of the week it is. Days where you are not drowning in homework are spent with friends, either consumed in your new Netflix obsession or video games.
I bet it has not hit you yet. I bet it feels like it is another year of college. But soon, it will start to feel like the end. You will get emails about ordering your cap and gown. Your advisers will want to know what your plans are for after graduation, what you will be doing once you leave your school. Exit surveys will come pouring in, wanting to know what you think about this place, the good and the bad. Then that day will come where you have your cap and gown hanging in your closet, ready to go. Maybe it will not hit you until you are walking across the stage, getting your diploma you spent thousands of dollars to get. Maybe you will be like me, who did not realize it was all over until I was driving away from my home, my friends, my memories with my life packed into my car, never to return come August.
Whatever happens after you walk across the stage, it does not matter just yet. What matters now is finishing the last of your classes as best you can (as always). What matters is spending time with these people you will soon be leaving. What matters the most is that you make this last year here the best year of your life, doing things you have never done before, doing all of the things you have been putting off until now.
Take risks and chances because once you leave here, you will not be able to go back. You cannot go back and re-take that class you failed. You cannot go back and get a better grade or join that club that would of looked great on a resume. You cannot go back and repair that girl’s broken heart you shattered or tell that guy how you have always felt. You cannot apologize to a good friend for a drunk night with a bad temper. Once you walk across that stage, there is no turning back, there is no more time to make memories that you will always remember. But you still have time.
Do not waste these last few months. Do not stand by and watch your senior year slowly fade away until it is too late to squeeze everything in. Go out more, spend more time with your friends. When you are unsure about doing something, please stop and think “why not? It’s senior year.” This one is for you guys, for all your hard work you have done, for all of the sleepless nights and endless amounts of caffeine you have consumed.
Here’s to the people you have met along the way, and to the last few you will meet before you leave. Here’s to doing the things you have always wanted to do. Here’s to taking chances and risks, even if it means you are scared out of your mind. Here’s to waking up the day after graduation without having an assignment to hand in. Here’s to making the best out of everything. Here’s to having the time of your life before this all ends. Here’s to real-life soon to happen. Here’s to almost finally being able to stop, breathe and say “I did it.” Here’s to it not being over just yet. Here’s to one last time, make it worth it.
Dear Seniors, here’s to your final chapter.