May is a time of endings for many students all across the country. Some of the endings are relief, like the end of a college freshman’s first year. Some of the endings are happy, glad that schools out for the summer.
Some of the endings are bittersweet. For seniors about to graduate, the end of their college careers is in sight. Soon they will be leaving the world they have grown accustomed to and entering a different world. Some will move on to graduate school and some will enter the work force. Some people walking the stage during commencement will be back in the summer for the last few hours needed for a diploma.
Either way they will be leaving the community that has been their major focus the past four or five years. Gone will be the teachers who know them by name and the friends who have been made along the way. The safety of knowing where everything is will be a distant memory.
While the end is in sight for many seniors, they have to make it through the stress of the last few weeks of classes and for many their last week ever of finals. Running around getting grad checks and clearance letters from advisers makes it sink in that the end is near.
The stress a senior goes through spreads to families and roommates. Where once a senior had time for family and friends, they are abandoned for schoolwork. If a senior has a job, the stress is made even worse. It is difficult to balance school and work as it is, but during the last few weeks leading up to finals week, sleep becomes a fond memory.
Before you realize it, you are hearing your name called and walking across a stage in a cap and gown in front of the very people who have supported you during your college career and maybe wanted to kill you during the previous weeks as stress ruled your life.
Many might feel relief or excitement that they made it. They might look forward to the end of nights and weekends spent huddled over notes and books. For some their college life might flash before their eyes as they are handed a rolled up piece of blank paper.
Now come on, you didn’t think it would be that easy to get your diploma, did you? To get the result of millions of hours of late night homework sessions, hundreds of tests and thousands of dollars, you have to pay even more money and wait on the postal service.
Once the diploma is framed and on the wall and time has dimmed the reality of college life, many will look back with fondness on “the best years of their lives” and the memories made. Some friends made during college will fade into the mists of time and others will be there with you to the end.
Regardless of what happens, the graduates participating in the upcoming commencement ceremony will join the ranks of proud Southeastern alumni. They will follow in the footsteps of those who have come before them and continue to represent Southeastern.
Hopefully they won’t abandon a place that has been a second home for many years. Hopefully the newly graduated will stay involved with Southeastern. Involvement can start by sending a letter, email or card to the person who went above and beyond to help you during college.
Get involved with the Alumni Association, speak in your favorite teacher’s class. Tell students what it is like after graduation. See if the company you work for has internship possibilities and if they don’t, suggest it to your boss. Even if there isn’t a possibility for internships, talk to your old adviser about mentoring one of their students.
No matter where you end up after you graduate, look back to where you have been and how you can help those coming up behind you. Think about what you wish you knew before you graduated and let students know. Stay involved and help make a difference in the Southeastern community, even if it’s only one person.
It will be nice to come back during Homecoming Week to see familiar faces of old friends and teachers in the crowd during the football game. To see current students and have the memories rush back of when you were in the same point of your life.
Soon to be grads, enjoy the last days of your college life, stress and all. The life you know will be changing soon as you exit one chapter of your life and enter the next.