A Message to College Seniors from a Fellow College Senior

The time has finally arrived and senior year is in full swing! Yesterday we were freshman, and in the blink of an eye, senior year is here? Okay, maybe the years didn’t go by that quickly, but when I look back at my college career, time just aimlessly passed by, whether we consciously or unconsciously thought about it.

I look at my college experience in stages: from being a lost freshman, trying to navigate using a map on my phone, and making “freshman year, forever friendly acquaintances as friends”, to being a sophmore and finding clubs I liked, to being a junior and finding my best friends and the right major for myself, and finally to being the senior I am today, working on the best version of myself.

I hope to help navigate senior year and all its glory with these goals in mind:

Learn a Skill You’ve Always Wanted to Try

How often will you ever encounter a Quidditch club in the future, inspired by the Harry Potter films? How about being in a club or sport with some of your closest friends? Or how about learning a new language? Opportunities to learn a new skill won’t always be easily accessible as it is at your academic institution, so take advantage of the clubs, sports, or academics that your school offers. 

Eat. Local. Food.

When you have those late night cravings and yourself and friends decide to hit the town and consume the existential, heavenly, game-changing pizza that everyone has at some point in their college career, make sure to enjoy. Every. Piece. Most likely, you probably live farther away or will not work in the area of your school, so enjoying local food for my friends and I is now more important than ever. 

Make Your Health and Well-Being a Priority

It’s a choice that we all must go through, and college dining actually tests your commitment to a healthy eating lifestyle. However, now is a great time to practice balance and mindful eating. Before entering the “real world”, we will have to learn how to cook eventually if we want to consume healthy foods at home. Exercise is also an important factor in creating a work-life balance. 

Make a Career To-Do List 

Take advantage of the resources you have at your academic institution while the offer is still available. Some items I’ve included in my senior year to-do list include:

1. Dress up resume

2. Update LinkedIn profile

3. Visit the campus career center

4. Attend job fairs/networking events

5. Make an online presence/brand building

Rethink Your Consumption: Push for Sustainability, Not Consumer…Ability

The statistics and science speak for itself. Climate change is here and has been here all along. I have been following 16 year-old climate activist, Greta Thunberg, who has Asperger’s Syndrome, through her campaigns on social media and the #FFF (Friday’s For Future) walk-out strikes. Strikes have occurred in the streets of cities from Manhattan, New York, to Mumbai, India. It is up to this generation of students, teachers, citizens, and political leaders to make an impact for mass global change. As seniors in college, we have a choice as students to join together within a large and common institution across the world. We are at a critical point in our academic careers where we can use our voices from school and transfer our movements for change to life after college. Future and present climate activists and political leaders, or those taking sustainability action in their daily lives will shape Greta’s vision for the future:

“The one thing we need more than hope is action. Once we start to act, hope is everywhere. So, instead of looking for hope, look for action. Then, only then, hope will come.”

I’m sitting here writing to you in my school’s library, to tell you the moment will come. Graduation will commence and what you decide to do for your future and how you can make a positive impact on the world is how you will utilize your time now and after college. We are all in this together (*cue High School Musical music), so be your most individual self. 

Images: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

• activism
• after graduation
• change
• college
• hope
• life after college
• seniors