The Beginning of an End

… technically speaking could have been the title of a blog post at the start of my Freshman year. However, in the second semester of my Senior year, the sentiment seems far more present than ever before. As I run around campus attending to my ever-growing list of commitments, witnessing the eager conversations of underclassmen, I can’t help but feel nostalgic for that time in your undergraduate career where everything is ahead of you and so many new passions, thoughts, and goals are waiting to be discovered.

As a senior intern, I’ve been tasked with participating in the Facebook group for the admitted students of the class of 2017. There is something truly infectious and inspiring about witnessing their excitement, anticipation, and enthusiasm for everything they will encounter over the next four years. When I first arrived on Vassar’s campus in the fall of 2009, I had no idea (despite firmly believing I had done the due diligence to know it all) what my time here would hold. I quickly found that many of the events that led me to where I am now- as an exceptionally fulfilled soon-to-be Vassar graduate- shifted my perspective in a way that could only be accomplished through taking classes and engaging with the community in ways that pushed the boundaries of my comfort zone as they had never been pushed before.

So as I look back on the 3.5 years thus spent in Poughkeepsie, I find myself nothing short of eternally grateful for the myriad of experiences a Vassar education has afforded me. There is truly nothing like being part of a community that presents you with so much opportunity for engagement and connection. There’s a certain eeriness to becoming cognizant of the impending curtain call, as you finally participate in the events you’ve heard about throughout your years at Vassar (bell ringing, serenading, convocation, and 99 nights to name just a few).

That said, I also feel as though I am slowly beginning to become comfortable with my ever-closer steps towards the precipice that guards the dive into the great unknown of the so-called “real world”. My time at Vassar has prepared me for a (ever-so hopefully) amazing journey ahead, and it is with that perspective that I remark on my leaving college as- in as clichéd of a way as possible- bittersweet. And I guess the saying that every ending is a new beginning loans itself perfectly to the slight alleviation of this anxious feeling that seems to be creeping over my fellow 2013ers and I this semester.