As this unusual semester and wild school year comes to a close, things are starting to look up. But with everything we all have to look forward to in the coming months, as a rising senior about to enter her final year of college, I’m about to experience a lot of things, for the very last time. A mind-boggling concept for everyone that will be graduating or has graduated throughout the course of the pandemic, everything is about to change.
In the upcoming months, I will jump in Lane Stadium as a student for the last time and attend my last Gobblerfest. I will have my last first day of classes and write my last article for Her Campus. Post-graduation plans will start to creep around the corner, the ever-looming sense of “my future” approaching faster then I would like.
I will have to finalize what I plan on doing for the rest of my life-watch as everything I’ve worked towards my entire life begins to fall into place. I’ll apply to schools to continue on with my education, going through yet another grueling set of application processes and waiting to see what my future will become. The future, waiting impatiently for me to make a decision and for decisions from schools to be made. In the time-span of a year, I will be considered a full-fledged member of society; in only 12 months, I will be a college graduate.
It’s hard to believe that I’ve arrived at this point in my life; it seems like just yesterday I was preparing for my senior year of high school and now I’m preparing to enter the “real-world.” Time doesn’t seem to be slowing down any and my life just keeps on moving by at a speed so fast it’s hard to keep up. But one thing I’ve learned from college, is that you have to make the most of any experience you have, no matter how big or small because you never know when your future will end up being today.
With all of the lasts I will experience next year, there are also a lot of firsts. In the upcoming school year I’ll turn 21 and be able to go to bars in the states for the first time and watch as my little brother and best friend attends his first college classes as a Hokie. So much has changed since I started my college journey, and so much more is bound to change in my last year as an undergrad. But no matter what changes are to come, I know that I can face them stronger than ever because even though I never know what life is going to throw my way, I have to make the most of it. College is supposedly the best 4 years (on average) of your life, so a piece of advice from someone entering her final year: don’t let any of it pass you by.