Looking Back While Heading Forward

By Moriah Story

It’s almost May 15, 2022, which means that soon my college career will be relegated to the realm of reminiscence. Everywhere I look, the flowers are blooming, the bees are humming, people are strolling around in shorts and I’m left to wonder: where did the semester go?

Or maybe I should be asking: where did the last four years go? Wasn’t I eighteen yesterday? Packing up too many of my clothes and books and giddily attending freshman orientation? I could have sworn it was only a night or two ago that I lay awake in my first dorm room, eyes unable to shut as I worried about my first class, my first syllabus, my first meal in the dining hall.

How many all-nighters have I pulled? How many professors have I loathed and how many have I loved? How many weekend pizzas have I ordered, how many friends have I made, how many days have gone by since I was that baby-faced freshman with seemingly endless assignments in my future?

Anyone who has graduated college will tell you that the semesters drag but the years fly by in a blur. Somehow, I think my brain doesn’t quite know that all of this ends in a month. The college student discounts will stop, the movie nights in dorm rooms will be over, the duck hunts, the bingo games, and the coffee with my favorite professors will all be nothing but happy memories for me. But thank God, the stress of academic life will also finally come to a halt. (That is, until my graduate program begins.)

Everyone’s advice for college students seems to be some version of, “Seize these opportunities while you can!” or “Study hard, but don’t forget to enjoy yourself!” and sure, those sentiments are true. But these four years are a blink-and-you-miss-it kind of thing. 

I’m more inclined to tell you to look around, smile, and keep plowing ahead. College is great, but so too will be the years after all of this is over. We have our whole lives ahead of us. In fact, this is really just the beginning. So as I watch Chambersburg come into blossom for the last time as a Wilson College student, I’ll close my eyes for a moment and remember all of people I’ve grown to love, all of the work I have accomplished and most importantly, all of the amazing things I’ll do on the road that stretches out ahead of me. 

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