The beginning of May marks the end of my first year of college. Over the past year I have made many new friends, a handful of which are seniors that will soon be graduating. Some of these seniors, such as my orientation leader, have been a very large part of my college experience. However, I have been a very small part of their college experience. It’s hard to comprehend that the friends I have just made, have been at this school making their mark for three entire years, unaware of my existence. They have experienced so much more than I have, ultimately completing a milestone that I have just begun.
Right now I'm registering for classes and figuring out my living situation for next year. My senior friends are making monumental decisions that will likely shape their future careers. While I'm focused on short term trivial issues, they are making serious decisions about their lives. You don't know what you're going to do because you didn't get a class you wanted? Well, there's a senior out there that doesn't know what they're going to do because they didn't get the job they wanted.
While seniors are certainly more experienced and arguably more mature, it's hard to say this dynamic is because of the age difference. The difference in age between the average senior and average first-year student is only three years. College is such a small portion of your life, and so many things drastically change in those four short years.
That’s not all though; this is a cycle. By the time I am a senior and have completed three years of school making new friends, my current senior friends will have become such a small part of my college experience, some to the point that I might even forget about them. I will probably also make first-year friends who will inevitably feel the same way about me that I feel about my current senior friends. Perhaps my current senior friends felt this way about a senior during their first year.
Despite my small part in their lives, I am really grateful for my senior friends. This past year they have offered much of their wisdom for me to live by. Also, I'm very willing to accept new friends. To end on a strange thought, think about this: the friendship dynamic I just described is very reminiscent of high school. Do you remember being a freshmen with small worries? Three years later do you remember being a senior making important decisions?
