Graduating college is supposed to be a wonderful day full of pride and accomplishment. For a lot of us, it's filled with many bittersweet feelings. Even if you have jobs or interviews lined up, the idea that you're suddenly going to be hundreds of miles away from your best friends doesn't make for a good feeling. The morning of my college graduation, I had to force myself through the motions to get myself ready. I didn't want this day to come and although I had been working towards it for the past four years, I found myself not wanting to walk across that stage in two short hours.
I put the quote "How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard" on my graduation cap. I could not think of anything truer about my campus. Albright has been a huge part of my life the past four years. The students, staff, and faculty there have had a lasting impact on my life. There are so many photos, inside jokes, memories, and amazing friendships that came from my decision to attend Albright. I was introduced to some of the most intelligent, selfless, kind, and loving people in college. I was speaking to someone out of state once, who asked me where I went to college and when she responded that she had never heard of it, it hit me that I'd soon have to leave my safe little bubble at my small liberal arts college in Reading, PA.
Albright is unique. We are a community here. We come together in hard times. We look for out for one another. You can always find someone to wave to on the way to class or to hang out with in the campus center in between classes. The opportunities are endless and they exist outside the classroom as well. And although everything wasn't always sunshine and rainbows, I learned the most about myself and who I could rely on during some of the most stressful times.
I'm not good at goodbyes. I don't know anyone that is, but I realized something the other day. It was two days after graduation and I said to my mom, "Wow the world didn't stop turning because my college career ended." That might sound silly, but when you have to leave something you love so much and know so well, it doesn't seem like there could be more after that. So it hit me that there is life after college. I thought of alumni I know, who are out there doing great things and they're still trying to figure everything out. I look up to them and I know that this might be rocky at first, but I'm going to take it a day at a time. College was definitely four of the best years of my life, but I'm only 22 and I'm just getting started.
