There comes a time in every person’s life when they reflect. Lately I have been doing a lot of that. With half of my senior year nearly over, I am starting to realize that the idea of commencement is frightening.
Commencement, which is the ending of one thing and the beginning of something new, is a huge adjustment. I can still remember my kindergarten commencement. Then they called it a promotion. If only it were that easy now.
A promotion to grad school would be great.
A guaranteed ticket to my number one choice school, Northwestern University, would put my fears to rest.
No worries that my graduate record examination scores were too low, no pressure to make my entrance essays perfect and no hassles like filling out applications.
Over my four years of college, I have experienced many promotions. Moving up through the ranks from freshman to senior has been an experience in itself.
I came into my freshman year at ULV without knowing a soul. Being from Portland, Ore. I had a lot of adjusting to do. But I took it all in stride. Every day was a new challenge.
Having to balance school, work, playing softball and trying to get to know people was a challenge that I took on open-mindedly.
Sure I made mistakes; who doesn’t? But looking back, those mistakes helped promote me to a higher level of security with myself.
I have learned that no matter what challenges come my way, I have a strong enough foundation to take on any adversary.
After leaving kindergarten, I can remember thinking that the friends I had made were going to be my friends forever.
These were the people who made tissue paper flowers with me. These were the friends who ate play dough in the corner with me. These were my true friends.
Now I don’t remember a single one of their names.
You always hear the saying, “The friends you meet in college will be your friends for life.” Never until this year did I think that was true.
As I compare my friends from Kindergarten to my friends at ULV, I began to realize the staggering differences.
The friends I have met while attending ULV are the friends that I know will be around after my time at ULV is through.
It is the times I spent hanging out in the Campus Times room with my other editing peeps, or going back to my home on C-top and hanging with the Crew, or the late night music jam sessions with BF cubed that really make me realize how lucky I am to get to surround myself with these people.
Leaving my kindergarten classroom was not hard. Despite the fact that I loved the artwork that hung on the wall, the smell of construction paper and permanent pen, it was easy to walk away and not look back.
Now with only a little more than six months left, the idea of leaving La Verne puts a frog in my throat. As sad as this may sound, the past four years my life here has been consumed by La Verne and the things that I been involved in here.
When all the stress of final projects is gone and the anxiety about tests disappears, I begin to realize that those are the things that I am going to miss the most. Although, I will say that there are a few things that I will not be so sad to say goodbye to i.e., Davenport food, Woody Hall complications and so on.
I guess you start to realize that as you grow older, change becomes harder to swallow.
Although I welcome change, I also admit that idea is frightening. I guess life would not be so spectacular if we did not have these moments of uncertainty to put us in check.
So I will leave you with one of my favorite quotes to ponder. “We are restless because of incessant change, but we would be frightened if change were stopped.”
Ain’t that the truth.
Amanda Stutevoss, a senior broadcasting and journalism major, is editor in chief of the Campus Times. She can be reached by e-mail at astute4@aol.com.
