These will be the best four years of your life.
That’s what they all told me as I finished my senior year of high school. Friends, friends’ parents, family members, people I work with, people I don’t even know. They all told me to cherish every moment as I prepared to enter my first year of my undergraduate experience.
To be totally honest, I didn’t believe them. I would scoff at the thought of ‘peaking’ in college. Life has to be better than four years of living away from home with a bunch of stinky college kids who I had nothing in common with. I was not excited for the extra freedom to do what I please. I already had that in high school and it was not an appeal to me. I had my eye on the prize. Get good grades and get a degree. That was the plan.
Well, four years later…I can say I was wrong and I will be walking away with much more.
The past three and a half years have been more than I could have ever imagined, and as I am preparing to register for my last semester of classes, I find myself becoming more and more grateful for my time here at SHU.
The people I have met have helped me grow out of a person I don’t even recognize anymore. Each day I think more about the fact that this is not something that will last forever. It feels like it when you’re a freshman, but I promise you’ll blink and suddenly be where I am right now.
Like everyone, Covid-19 put a damper on the experience. Part of me knows it is changing my view on these last few months. Since 2020, I have become obsessed with capturing memories to turn into time capsules that we will look at years from now. Memories we can share with new friends and someday our children.
After sophomore year ended by logging off a Zoom class from my bedroom, I created a video combining snapchats of my friends and me. To thank them for a great year, and to remember that life was not always walked through with a mask on.
Last year, after junior year, I did the same. Three minutes and 45 seconds of my friends at our wildest moments. One of us was graduating and it was the last time we would all live together. It is something that we still rewatch at least once a month (I do at least).
I knew my senior year would be jam packed. No doubt I was correct. So how would I fit it all into under four minutes? Instead of a year long video, I challenged myself to create one video a month. With fancy new vlog equipment and friends who were used to me shoving a camera in their face, we successfully created a video for September. So far October is coming along great.
I am so excited to be able to have nine videos to relive our senior year. The best year. Because those who said these would be the best four…I hear you now…and you were right.
Let’s make the most of it all. Capture the memories. And build a time capsule. So when my kids and their friends go off to school, and I say “Those will be the best four years of your life”…I’ll have proof to show them why.
