As the second semester of your senior year arrives, you are expressing a lot of emotions; especially being late to class, studying just a little bit less than usual, and so done with general education requirements (consider yourself lucky if you've done all of them). As midterm season begins to peak up soon, seniors start feeling nostalgia and how they wish so much to go back to being a freshman.

Now we are all worrying about going to graduate school or figuring out what career we want, for real this time. Seeing seniors from last year at career fairs and seeing more and more posts on Linkedin from your fellow "colleagues." As we begin the journey of finding a job, we are finishing our last round of attending James Madison University (unless you're going to be a double duke then I am so happy for you).

It was the Tuesday of Assessment Day where my senior nostalgia began for the first time. I was on the quad with my friends sipping on an iced caramel macchiato from Carrier Starbucks (basic, yes I know) enjoying the nice weather outside with our foster puppy. Frisbee's, colorful blankets, and so many JMU students surrounded me. I turned to my friend and said, "a day like today was the reason I chose JMU during my tour here," and then a million memories came over me. How was I supposed to leave the best place on earth in just a short couple of months?

Ever since then I have been trying to really capture the beauty of JMU's campus, despite all of the construction. Sometimes it feels as if time is passing by way too fast. I think every senior can relate to the fact that we are ready to graduate and eager to start a new chapter in our lives but absolutely devasted that we have to leave one of our happiest places.

JMU has brought me challenges, my lifelong friends, my sorority, accomplishments, some of my favorite professors, and the friendliest group of students that someone will ever meet. Seniors: you're going to miss every little thing that makes JMU the way it is. You're going to miss all of the inside jokes that only JMU students and alumni will understand; whether that be how you were so lucky to pet one of the quad cats today or talk to Duke Dog at the football game. Or how you still do not know whether or not to believe if the rumors of the kissing rock are true. Or if you'll ever get to go inside the underground tunnels. Or if you'll come back and get a jack brown's burger again. Every little thing like this rushes through my head when I think about graduating.

You're going to be reminded of the people who were there when you went through your senior capstone or some of your hardest 300-level classes (@COB 300 for me). You're going to look back and wonder how you made it this far.

There were some weeks where I thought that I would never make it through because of all of the work. However, I always struggled with friends/roommates or with groups from class at the library spending long hours there. I always felt like I had somebody to go to at JMU and that's what makes it special. The people there. You may not see it now but after those four years go by; those are the people we are going to remember. The ones who laughed with you, the ones who saw your mental breakdowns in the middle of finals week, and your classmates that turned into friends.

I will remember those who have touched my life in some kind of way and some of you will be my bridesmaids, some of you I am determined to drive to NOVA (Northern Virginia) to go see, and some of you, I may never see again; but the time I've had with every single one of you, I will remember.