To My Fellow Seniors: Focus on the Firsts

As a senior graduating this May, I am filled with so much anxiety and also anticipation. I love the home I have made at Virginia Tech and have met so many amazing people and forged so many great friendships. Despite the last first days of classes and last experiences with all my friends in one place, this is still a beginning. A new semester, a new year, a new age—I turned 22 in January—and new beginnings continue as I create a path for myself. As a freshly 22 year old, I experienced my first birthday celebration in downtown Blacksburg. This year I went to my first men’s and women’s basketball games and I hope to continue exploring and attending sporting events I have not yet. On another note, this is my first semester without a 9am class and my first semester where I managed to have some weekdays without classes at all. It is my first spring semester in Blacksburg since sophomore year, where, as a COVID freshman, it felt like my first real spring semester at all. This will be my first spring break spent with my friends in Florida. It is the first time I am applying to big girl jobs and considering what to do and where to go after I graduate. It is the first time all of my friends are back in one place in over a year. It is the first time I get to cheer on my friends as they also embark on their separate journeys toward the future and create paths for themselves to get there. It is the first time many of them will do the same for me. I will continue meeting new people, making new friends, seeing new places and learning new things. I will watch new shows, read new books, listen to new music and hope for the best new beginnings possible for me and all of my favorite people. Despite the anxiety of the lasts of college that live in the back of my mind, I am hoping to focus on the firsts and the new things despite how nerve-wracking they may seem.

• beginnings
• college senior
• firsts
• friends
• graduation
• lasts
• new
• senior