As a recent grad, “a little over a week since graduation” recent, I am already finding myself going through social media and thinking, am I ever going to see this person again? Will I ever see that one guy from the Starbucks on campus again? Will I ever see that group member who absolutely did not contribute whatsoever to our project? Will I see my roommates; my friends from different area codes; my professors? Overwhelmingly, the countless times I've heard, “we should do lunch soon” or “I’ll text you later” has only left me with the rather bitter thought “no, you will not.”
With graduating classes becoming larger, and social media allowing the number of people we know to skyrocket, how often do we stop and think about the truly meaningful relationships we have? How are we to know the true depths of friendship and kinship when the only measurement we have is a silly number on Facebook telling us how many people accepted a friend request?
Somehow, in this mixed up instant gratification filled time we live in, it is easy to get caught up in living for only one person; yourself. It is easy to take for granted the routines we live, the people we see, the classes and classmates we know. And it becomes easy for us to forget that we need to stop and smell the roses. Yup, as cliché and ridiculous as it may seem, you need to stop, relax and smell the roses of life.
If I had to go back and do it again (which I don’t think I would, even if I could) I would most certainly take my time to enjoy the relationships around me and to be in community in places that I felt most at home.
For myself, I realized this late into my last semester. I had been working a customer service job which I absolutely hated. I hated the customers, I hated my coworkers and I hated how I felt after work; I will admit that I didn’t hate the compensation. I knew that it was my last semester in college, and more importantly I knew that I was approaching the last four weeks of my undergraduate career.
I made a conscious decision to embrace my last month in college over a job, over the pay, and over the experience I would gain by working, because I knew in the long run, I would not be able to own up to that decision. I realized that I wanted to have those lunches, and those hangouts, and those bizarre office hour conversations with professors because I knew I would never get an opportunity like this again.
And even though the grim reality may be that I will never see some college friends, or have those promised lunches and dinners and see my professors again, I am comforted and think fondly of the moments I did take advantage of.
Maybe you are on towards a new experience. Maybe you are approaching the closing of one chapter in your life. So please do me one favor; never take for granted the moments you find routine, because by the time you figure you should take advantage of those moments and to explore and have fun and to enjoy the company of those around you, it will be too late.
Seriously, stop reading this and go tell your friends that you love them.
