“I have been changed, for good.” What a cliche but true sentiment to how I feel as the days wind down at my time here at Marymount Manhattan College. I don’t know where to start in explaining how much this school has shaped and changed me not only academically but in my personal life as well. I am grateful for every opportunity that MMC has given to me .
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As I sit here and write my final article for Her Campus I think about a very famous piece titled “The Opposite of Loneliness” by Marina Keegan. Keegan was a star student at Yale University who tragically died the day before her graduation. Her valedictorian speech was “The Opposite of Loneliness” where she discusses all of the things she will miss after leaving college and about how while everyone’s futures are uncertain, that’s okay because everyone has to follow their own path. She states at one point that the thing she will miss most is the fact that her school felt like home. She writes, “It’s not quite love and it’s not quite community; it’s just this feeling that there are people, an abundance of people, who are in this together.” This idea of being surrounded by people who are all experiencing life in the same capacity of yourself is something I never truly sat down and thought about, we all live our own lives and our own experiences on the daily, but the thing that unites us together is MMC. For that I am forever grateful.
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Graduation is scary. The future is scary. And I wish I could announce in this piece that I have all these exciting prospects that start the day after I walk across the stage but that’s just not true. I’m not sure what the future holds when I leave MMC, but I do know that all of the friendships and connections I have made will linger far after graduation. I’m worried, I’m scared but I’m hopeful and to know I have a community of people behind me with resources and an abundance of support. Instead of quoting Winnie the Pooh or Dr. Seuss, I am going to quote Keegan once more, “We don’t have a word for the opposite of loneliness, but if we did, I could say that’s what I want in life.”
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Thank you for all the wonderful memories and friends I now call family, MMC. But it’s time to say goodbye, and hello to whatever comes next.
Congratulations class of 2017!