Starting college isn’t easy. You’re on your own in a new place, taking on new responsibilities and you don’t go home at the end of the day anymore because it is your home. But once I knew who my friends were, it got easier.
For me, and many others, many of these friends are older, fresh-faced mentors who remembered well the perils of their first year and helped steady us through ours.
I am a junior this year, and many of those steady hands – those familiar faces – are now graduating seniors. For those of you in the same camp, you might be thinking the same thing:
I have never known this place without them.
In the hope of waving them off with no regrets, I want to dedicate a few words to them and their role in my life. Goodness knows, we need to say it while we can, before the world calls them somewhere else and our paths become harder to cross. Ultimately, we will never all be in this place together again. Sure, there will be alumni events in the future. I certainly plan to keep in touch with my senior friends, but this chapter, these three years we have spent together in classes, trips and projects and living just around the corner, is coming to an end.
I have been here before, though.
When I was a junior in high school, the seniors above me graduating was a bizarre moment to realize. I didn’t realize I had been living in the before until I was in the after, and my social atmosphere was completely different.
Worse still, I had to follow them.
Any person who has graduated from a secondary education will tell you, “it goes so fast,” and it only gets faster.
Change is inevitable, regardless of whether or not we are prepared for it. Graduation has always been the goal – we came here knowing it would eventually end.
So, how do we say goodbye to our beloved mentors, bosses, classmates and friends?
First, we should thank them. I mean this literally: write letters, give gifts, show up to their final projects and presentations. Even a thoughtful email or quick text could be the difference between a lifelong friendship and a nameless face in the photo album. Sink your nails into them and never let go.
Second, let them have their moment. Four or more years of stress, work, wins and losses have led to this event. They are accomplished, hardworking and finally, finished.
Take the win, seniors, you’ve earned it.
And for us, who are left behind? Think of it as training.
The sad reality is that we will keep losing people – sometimes suddenly, through a big move, a transfer, a death or a disagreement. Other times, it will happen slowly, unintentionally drifting apart until we are fundamentally different people.
But there will always be new people.
A year from now, we juniors will be someone’s seniors, leaving the helm to the next wave of students. We will sail away, meeting new ships in the night, finding new islands of life experience to land on – maybe our predecessors will be there. Someday soon, a year’s difference won’t feel like a difference at all.
Until then, seniors, know that you made your mark and we’re right behind you.
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