While walking down the street recently, taking in a scenic view of the residential quad, I had a thought that made me stop in my tracks: This would be my last autumn at The College of Wooster. My last Halloween. My last Thanksgiving, my last Culture Show, my last college everything (at least, hopefully — given I pass my I.S., of course).
I’m not sure if any other seniors are feeling the same way as well, but for me, the collegiate nostalgia is beginning to hit in full force. It’s like the senior feelings from high school, but… more personal. I’ve grown so much as a person in college, and Wooster has become a second home.
I have spent most of this semester looking around me, seeing my closest friends — many of whom are seniors as well — going through the various stages of their I.S., applying to graduate school and even beginning to plan for the future. Some haven’t considered life past college. Others, meanwhile, seem to have everything planned, down to a “t.” I can assure you, dear reader, that I most certainly don’t.
Still, we all have one thing in common: Come May, we will no longer be together each day. No more late night Momino’s (Domino’s at Mom’s, for the uninitiated). No more Cards Against Humanity or movies into the wee hours of the morning. No more of everything we hate and love about Wooster.
Little do we realize, but our time as undergraduates is ticking away by the second. This is not meant to be bleak or depressing — it’s just true. No matter how much we want to avoid the future, it will come to us, whether we want it to or not. We’ll have to enter the “real world,” responsibilities and all. By May, we can hope we’ll be ready to move on to bigger and better things. But, right now, this is our time to shine.
College is hard, and I am not trying to sugarcoat or romanticize it in the slightest. It’s rough being a freshman, being a sophomore is difficult and being a junior can feel like an emotional marathon. Senior year puts them all to shame, as I am finding out. But, this undergraduate experience, with its good and its bad, is something we all share here, preparing us for the “real world.”
So I ask you, dear readers, to try to live in the moment. Go downtown. Read that book that’s been beckoning to you beneath the mountain of homework on your desk. Take a road trip with friends, whether it’s to another city, or to uptown Wooster. I don’t care what it is: if you’re going to regret not doing it before you graduate, then do it (as long as it’s both legal and within reason, of course).
Underclassmen, you still have time to spare; spend it with those you love. Those mundane moments, like watching the snow fall from the cozy couches of Old Main as you drink a cup of tea, or laughing late into the night with your pals — they will come to an end all too soon.
Everyone, take advantage of the time you have. When the world feels like it’s about to crush you, when your assignments are piling up, when you’re feeling suffocated by deadlines, politics and by life — take a moment to breathe, and remember that one day, these halcyon days will be remembered with a bittersweet pang of nostalgia. Even if right now, everything feels like it sucks, you can do it. We can do it. I have faith in you.
To you, dear reader: best of luck.
Katie Randazzo a Contributing Writer for the Voice, can be reached for comment at KRandazzo18@wooster.edu.