April Showers bring May Flowers, but April also brings the last month of the Spring 2022 semester here at BGSU. Another semester’s end is quickly approaching and finals will be here before we know it. With that being said, that means graduation is quickly approaching for the Spring 2022 graduates. I myself am graduating in August of 2022, but nevertheless I am still a senior in college ready to make my mark on the world upon graduation. Whether you are furthering your education in a graduate or other professional program or jumping right into your field of study, seniors your work does not go unnoticed. It has been a long four or more years for us, but we are finally ready to graduate! College was an emotional rollercoaster, but I want to reflect on the past five years (because yes, college sometimes takes more than four years. It is a marathon, after all!)
When I first came to BGSU, I was somewhat familiar with the campus and how things operated because my dad graduated from BGSU when I was a kid. He would bring me and my brother to campus sometimes and I just remember seeing all the college kids and thinking how grown up and mature they looked. I couldn’t believe that one day, I would be in college getting an education just like my dad and his classmates. When I first came to BGSU, I was not that prepared for college. I was nervous to be living on my own and making my own decisions. However, I quickly figured out how to balance my newfound freedom and classwork. I also started making friends in my building. Everything was great, until Spring semester of my first year. I went through a mental health crisis and had to drop most of my classes or register them as incomplete and finish them in the summer. By the fall semester of my second year, I was doing better mentally and was even doing better in my classes. I even joined my sorority, Kappa Delta, that semester and was meeting even more people and getting more involved on campus. I was further getting the hang of college and from then on it was only uphill!
That is, until March 2020. In March of 2020, the whole world was seeing the impact of a global pandemic and everything shut down. What routine I had before was completely thrown out the window . All of my classes were moved online and I would remain all online until the end of the Spring semester of 2021. Online classes for me were really hard and deviating from my routine was even harder. I lost my job for a couple of months and was forced to move in with my aunt for the summer (thank you to her for taking me in). However, I still tried to make the best of the summer and even got my job back in June and got a remote internship writing grants for local non profit organizations. That internship helped me realize that I wanted to work for the public good and wanted to make a difference by working in non profit administration after graduation. I even started thinking about graduate school.
I eventually got the hang of online classes and was making the Deans list! However, by Fall 2021, I shifted from being all online for a year and a half, to being completely in person again. This shift in my schedule was really hard for me because I had just started getting used to online classes. Being back in person was a shift and I had lost some of the confidence I gained from talking in class, because there was not much of that in my online courses. However, I was excited because in my fifth year at BGSU, this was the last one! With how many setbacks I faced, I was so excited that in 2022 I would finally be a college graduate. A lot of my friends are graduating too, so I was excited to share the senior year experience with them.
Now, as I sit here writing this article, I look back at all the memories I made and people I met that have changed my life together. I gained so much leadership experience in my undergraduate experience. I was part of my school’s Undergraduate Student Government and helped my friend with his campaign for USG president. Because of all my hard work and dedication, he gave me a chance to further my leadership experience and put me in the Cabinet. I also became the Director of Alumni in Kappa Delta in Fall 2019 and have been in the position since (I will be sad to leave it, but excited to see what alumni life is like). Both USG and Kappa Delta brought so many community service opportunitie and it has been great being able to give back to my community. I also became a recruitment guide or “Rho Gamma” for the College Panhellenic Conference two years in a row! Then, in 2021, I joined the new and improved Her Campus chapter here at BGSU. I was so excited to be joining an organization that was just starting up again and watching this organization grow in just a year has been incredible. It has been awesome to be able to write again.
I was also part of Dance Marathon for 3 years, with my final year being a Morale Captain. Being able to raise money for children in the hospital was wonderful and I even raised over $1,000 my second year in the organization! I think my favorite part of Dance Marathon was meeting some of the kids who were being taken care of at Mercy Children’s Hospital. I was sad that I couldn’t participate for my last year in Undergrad but this was because this semester I stepped out of my comfort zone and joined the Model United Nations class. This is something I have never done before and I even get to go to the Model United Nations conference in New York City!
My undergraduate experience was full of high highs and low lows. I experienced a lot of change, growth, setbacks, and trials. Overall, I would rate it a 7.5/10! I almost went to a different college in another state. I was sad when I had to give that up and come to BGSU, but now I know I would never trade my time at BGSU for anything. I loved my time at BGSU so much, I have committed two more years and will be attending graduate school in the Fall 2022. I will be entering the Masters in Public Administration program and have even received an assistanceship for it (hello tuition waiver!) Overall, I am going to miss a lot of the people I met through my undergraduate experience, as many of them move on to other schools or get jobs elsewhere. I am so thankful for all the people in my life who have supported me throughout this experience and have been there for me. To my fellow seniors: let’s cherish these last few weeks until graduation! WE DID IT!