Many seniors would probably say that when they look back over the last four years of their lives they don’t know where the time went. However, I can honestly say that when I look back I can remember clearly how I spent my time. I spent it going out to dinner with friends, going to parties in Bissman, watching ESPN on the couch in Westminster and passing up the opportunity to make the most of my education.
During my time at The College of Wooster, I have watched seniors graduate and the majority of them have told me the same message over and over again: party hard and enjoy yourself because you won’t be able to do it after you graduate. I can honestly say that as I look back on my years at Wooster, not having partied more is not one of my regrets. I had plenty of fun in college, but what I regret most is not focusing more on my classes. I grew up being told by my parents that the decisions I made as a young man would impact my successes as an adult, and as I look down the barrel of a scary economy and selective graduate schools I can honestly say I wish I had listened sooner.
I am not here to tell my fellow students how to spend their time, but what I am here to do is share my regrets in the hope that students following me will think twice before ignoring an assignment or not studying for a quiz. I had fun in college. Everyone should have fun in college. But I ignored the fact that we live in a competitive world, and as I begin to take my first steps out of the Wooster bubble I grow more nervous by the day.
We live in an economy that is suffering. Unemployment rates are high, gas prices are projected to hit $5 a gallon and the stock market is up and down more than an eight-year-old on a trampoline.
Every time someone asks me what I am going to do after I graduate, I tell them I don’t know. What I don’t tell them is, I am afraid. I am afraid I won’t be able to give my children the childhood I was lucky enough to have. I am afraid I will spend my 20s and 30s struggling to find work. I am afraid I won’t be able to send my children to a great school like The College of Wooster.
This is not to say that I failed classes or skipped 10 classes a semester. In fact, I will likely graduate with an above average grade point average, but that fact doesn’t change my knowledge that I left something on the table. There were classes that I could have done better in and papers I could have focused harder on. I will walk across that stage in 10 days and I will be proud of my degree and ready to move on. I just hope those few mistakes don’t hold me back in the future.