Thursday, May 19, 2011

Advice for the Class of 2011

Yesterday I attended my high school’s graduation. I celebrated with the Class of 2011. I watched them cross the stage and walk in to the famous “Pomp and Circumstance.” I envied them a bit, but more than anything I reminisced about my own graduation that happened exactly one year ago.
            What would I have liked to know on that celebratory day? What do I know now that I can share with the seniors who are embarking on the journey of a new beginning?
1.     Cherish these moments
Right now everyone is celebrating your accomplishments. Everyone around you is proud of you because of what you’ve become. You have the world in front of you. Don’t forget that feeling, because in a few short months, that feeling might overwhelm you. It’s exciting for sure, but overwhelming nonetheless. Right now, you have some of the best friendships you will ever have. New friends will come along and you will expand your relationships. But in this moment, these are the people who spent four years of continuous days with you. They know you better than anyone. Soon that won’t be true because you will change and so will they.
This summer will be great. But this is the last summer where you won’t miss someone. Once you go to college, you miss your friends from home, and when you come home, you miss your friends from college. So enjoy the bliss of not missing someone.
2.     Be frightened, but be brave
It’s ok to feel scared about what the future has to bring. The unknown of roommates, dining halls, community bathrooms, college academia, a new place and a newfound independence can certainly be anxiety-producing thoughts. Going to college was one of the scariest things I’ve ever done. But knowing it was ok to feel that way helped me to stay afloat. The fact that millions of people go to college and not just survive, but thrive is also encouraging. If I know someone before me has done this and been just fine, I feel I can do it too.
So be frightened, because that is completely normal. But be brave. Face this new change head on with the courage to succeed and create your own future.
3.     Always be yourself
Going to a new place and meeting several new people is not easy. But it will be even harder if you don’t go as yourself. Don’t be ashamed of who you are or where you come from. Those are the things that make you interesting. And if someone doesn’t like you for a special quirk you have, then who cares. One lesson I wish I had known was you don’t have to be everyone’s friend. Everyone goes to college expecting to be best friends with everyone in their hall or in their classes. But this isn’t high school. (And I doubt anyone was friends with everyone in high school either). You don’t have to be anyone but yourself, and if that self isn’t friends with the girl in the room next to you or the boy who always sits in the common room, then so be it.

So to the seniors of 2011, welcome to your new beginning. The parties will come and go. The summer nights will blend into wonderful memories. Your friends will never leave your heart. And always remember what high school gave you. The future is uncertain and scary, but anything that comes easy usually isn’t worth it. Good luck in everything you do. Take it from a girl who has been there, a little luck doesn’t hurt a thing. 

Monday, May 2, 2011

That "After" Feeling


It seems like just yesterday I was graduating from Holy Family with the whole world right in front of me, and the rest of my life ahead of me. But here I am, one year done with college.
            I feel like just yesterday I was writing my first blog entry about anticipating everything before me. And now I’m sitting in my room just as it was in August, but a new person with my first year of college behind me.
            In a way, I feel like I am the same girl who left Colorado and high school behind. But I know that isn’t true. I changed this year. I’m still an impatient, strong-minded, honest, control freak red head who would do anything for her friends. But I grew in so many ways.
            When I got to Northeastern, I was scared and ready for the year to come. And now said and done, the year was a learning experience.
            I learned how to live among a group of people. I learned to live with a roommate, how to share the laundry room and how to hold my tongue even when I couldn’t sleep and the kids in the common room were screaming. I learned that I don’t ever want to live in a dorm again, but I’m glad I got the experience.
            I had to relearn how to make friends and get to know people. I had to relearn how to share my life with my friends, and how to love someone not despite but because of their flaws.
            I learned how to cope with frustration. The most important lesson I learned from frustration was how to let go and forgive. In October, when high school was unnecessarily haunting me, I didn’t know what to do. The old me would have freaked out at the people causing me pain. Instead I freaked out to the people I knew would catch me as I was falling. A few weeks into the silly issue, I completely let go of the anger I was feeling and forgave the people causing me the pain I wanted so badly to go away. Forgiveness, I learned, is the best medicine.
            The whole ordeal in October, taught me how to handle a crisis as an adult. It helped me to grow as a person. And most importantly I learned a lesson I’ve been trying to perfect my whole life, how to let go. Now looking back on the whole thing, I smile and roll my eyes, but I’m also thankful for what I came out with.
            This year allowed me to find myself in a completely new environment. My solid and consistent background gave me a good sense of who I was, so being put into a new situation caused me to lose myself a little bit. I’m not 100 percent sure I found myself again, but college is for finding a new self identity, so I’ll get there, I’m just giving myself the time I need.
            As I packed up my shoebox of a dorm room and rolled my suitcases out, I got that “after” feeling. I was feeling sentimental about my time in Smith Hall at Northeastern. As much as I didn’t like my room, or my hall, or even being a freshman, it was still a part of who I was. It will always be a part of me.  
      So what will the summer and sophomore year bring? Who knows? But all I can say is, “Bring it on.”