Seniors enter new phase of life

Graduating from college marks the beginning of the rest of my life.
I’ve decided over the past year that this statement can only be fact.
I didn’t really think much of college when I started. Being stuffed into a small, cinder-block room with strangers didn’t thrill me. I was painfully shy. I viewed the environment as unstable because we have no choice but to constantly interact with others to attempt to decipher their thoughts. I was afraid of falling into an abyss of bad decisions or being depressed because I couldn’t make up my jumbled mind.
I thought I’d be too influenced by too many thoughts and perceptions. However, this proved to be true. It just didn’t turn out as I expected.
Throughout the past four years I’ve seen ideas fought over, I’ve seen relationships blossom and suddenly bottom out, I’ve witnessed changes of friendship, and I’ve watched as people decide to cease their loyalty in order to do what they want. I’ve experienced all of the above along with every emotion attached to them.
But these gut wrenching times were necessary in order to start really growing up.
Now as I move away from college to a new social environment (a.k.a. “the real world”), I’m anticipating some moments of clarity. To fully understand how and why things happened as they did, to realize how I could have differently handled situations, and to learn so much from everything that has overwhelmed me during my tenure at school. It’ll be my first chance to finally piece things together. Being at college has given me the chance to experience an amalgam of events and people in order to continue the lifelong journey of becoming Julie Kane.
Graduation does not mean the end of an era. It does not mean that life as I know it is over, or that life will never be this good again.
It’s the turning of a page, the chance to let hindsight settle in and allow for the opportunity to reflect, grow, and apply everything I’ve learned.It’s just the beginning.

By Julie Kane
jmk0841@sjfc.edu