To my future self,
These past four years have been a lot, but we made it. We endured a global pandemic and our own personal issues, but we still pushed through to the end and got our degree, two degrees in fact. And now we’re moving on to the next chapter of our life. I don’t know where you are right now, what grad school you’re going to, or if you’ve even decided for sure that you’re going, but I know that you’re going to do great things.
Right now, it’s the end of my junior year. I’m heading into a long summer where I’ll be taking summer classes, writing for a magazine and studying for the GRE. In a few weeks, I’ll officially be a senior, which is crazy because it feels like just yesterday that I was living it up with my friends in Hedrick Summit as a freshman. Now, I’m entering a period where I have to think more concretely about what life after undergrad is going to look like. It’s scary but also exciting. This is what I’ve been working towards, and graduation is me getting one step closer to becoming the person I want to be.
As this is my last year as a UCLA student, I hope to enjoy everything the school and the city have to offer before I graduate. The first half of senior year will be a little rough as I take the GRE, apply for grad schools and work to keep up my grades. But I hope as I accomplish these tasks, I’ll also take the time to enjoy college life. I know that all of this hard work is going to pay off.
I hope that I’m still hanging out with my friends, going to basketball games and taking time for myself. I hope that senior year isn’t just a period of academic and professional growth but also spiritual and personal growth. I hope I’m doing a better job of taking care of myself and loving others.
I hope that by graduation I have good job prospects or grad school prospects lined up. I hope I’ll have the means financially to live where I want to live and pursue what I want to pursue and that everything will fall into place. But more importantly, I hope that I become a stronger, kinder person. I hope I overcome the challenges I’m facing right now, and that I can look back and be thankful for everything that happened during my four years at UCLA.