COLUMN: Leaving campus with no regrets
It would be hard for me to forget my the first week of my college career. While my new dorm-mates were exploring campus, giggling with all the other over-enthusiastic freshman girls and playing root beer-pong – only in Utah, seriously – I was a red-nosed, stuffy-headed, extremely sick student. I wanted to start out the school year by making a name for myself – preferably a good one – but every time I stepped into my Connections class, I felt like I had 64 eyes on me, wondering who the mangly-looking, snot-nosed high school kid was. There are very few weeks of my life I would term miserable, but this one certainly topped the list.
The thing I had looked forward to for so long – remember, this was the girl who carried a briefcase around to do her “homework” at age three – suddenly seemed like the worst experience of my young life. At the peak of my illness, when I didn’t think the week could get worse, my Connections professor announced the class would be walking to the agriculture greenhouse, which, in case you didn’t know, is about a mile north of main campus. It was 100 degrees. My body was so achey I didn’t think I could make it out of the classroom, more or less to the other side on Logan on foot.
At that moment, I stopped liking college. “Send me home. Make me work 50 hours a week at a greasy fast food joint. Let my parents set a 10 p.m. curfew. But please, don’t make walk across town,” I prayed to the college gods.
Needless to say, I made it through.
Like most terrible weeks, mine came to an end. Throughout my three-year college career, I’ve had my good weeks and bad weeks. At the beginning of my journey, I could have never anticipated the firsts the year would bring.
My first love. My first heartbreak. My first venture into the depths of college journalism. My first faith crisis. My first inklings of what I actually wanted to do with my life.
As I sit here in a desk that won’t belong to me in a few weeks, I can’t help but consider if I’ll walk away from campus regretting anything next week. Sure, I never became an Ultimate Aggie or ate midnight pizza at the Junction – OK, my health might thank me for that one – but I’ve checked just about every item off my college bucket list and then some.
Between the parties, campus clubs and midnight runs to sketchy restaurants, I’ve had my share of fun. I’ve also had my share of of defining experiences: getting a job at a real paper, being on the scene of campus crime and creating relationships that will travel far beyond the Quad.
Someday, I may run into something I wish I would have done, but for now I feel confident leaving campus knowing I’ve accomplished what I set out to do.
If you’ve made it to graduation, you deserve a pat on the back and a Marv n’ Joe from Hazel’s. No, but really. Go get one.
For those of you who aren’t done, whether you have one year or four, don’t delay your dreams until after graduation. There’s a whole world of careers, marriage and shoddy work-out facilities in your future, but now is the time to live and let live. Chase after what you want, because it may not be there in a few years.
– Allee is a senior majoring in journalism and communications and can be reached at allee.evensen@aggiemail.usu.edu