The end of the school year is a week away. For many seniors, the most important aspect of their collegiate education is neither facts nor statistics, but rather, their personal growth, unique experiences, and connections made along the way.
“It’s okay to not have everything in your life figured out. That is essentially what college is for,” senior Mikayla Houskeep said.
“It’s okay if your journey is different than what you anticipate it to be because that’s the beauty of college.”
For many students, college is their first experience of being away from home and becoming an independent adult. This brings unique challenges as they must learn to provide for themselves.
“I’ve learned a lot of self-efficacy. So, it’s just a lot of being able to recognize that I’m an adult out of the house, being able to take care of myself and get a routine down,” senior Taryn Paradis said.
“It kind of fell onto my shoulders, like, ‘okay, if I want to have a quality education and be able to pursue my future career plans, as I want to, I’m going to have to be the one who puts in the work and figures this out for myself.’”
As part of adjusting to adult life, many students must also learn to manage their time.
“The university really wants students to get involved in their first year, which I think is good, but also, I think it can distract,” senior Zoe Fields said.
“You’re like, ‘oh, I have so much time to do these projects,’ and then next thing you know, it’s the end of the semester, and you’re like, ‘well, I should have done these things sooner,’ ‘I should’ve spaced them out better.’”
Balancing a social life, with work, with class and homework can be especially difficult.
“Plan for more studying than you originally set aside for yourself. I think it’s easy to be caught up in wanting to do what other people do, and wanting to just be social because that’s a really big part of college,” Paradis said. “But it’s also kind of important to remember that there’s a reason why you’re here.”
Beyond that, many seniors learned they must stand up for themselves.
“You really have to advocate for yourself and make time to go see professors if you have any questions. I think that’s something that I learned as a freshman, but I didn’t implement until as a sophomore, and probably would have been beneficial,” Fields said.
Many seniors stress taking advantage of the resources available.
“You have to take a lot of initiative, but there are so many opportunities available if you really try to look for them. Such as, events to be a part of, clubs, speaking with professors, going to SI, and then taking advantage of some other resources such as Half Acre, and the Counseling Center,” Houskeep said.
College is also a time to make connections that will impact life well beyond college years according to some seniors.
“When you’re stepping out in the real life, making those connections through internships or people that work in certain jobs– I think being able to make those certain connections gets your foot in the door. Open bridges for certain career opportunities,” said senior Keegan Watts.
Despite the difficulties they’ve had to overcome, seniors generally seem to have positive memories of their past few years and appreciate the many opportunities. Their words of advice to younger students echo this sentiment.
“Slow down and appreciate where you’re at. Yeah, college can be really stressful, and I think it’s really easy to focus on that, but it’s also a really cool time. You have a lot of opportunities to do things and make memories that will last your whole life,” senior Izzie Jones said.
“I found that it was hard to just appreciate where I was at and not wish for the next thing, but now that I’m leaving, I just kind of wish that I had appreciated where I was at a little bit more throughout the college experience.”
