A Semester in Review | To My Fellow College Students

     Before you read this post, I have to explain that the next three paragraphs are something I wrote at the end of my 1st semester. For some reason, I never published it. Now, looking back in light of recent events, this post has even more meaning than I realized.

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 The cold air hit my face as I began the trek back to my dorm room for the last time that semester. My backpack rested easily behind me, much lighter than when I left my room earlier that morning. I had just spent the morning emptying my backpack of its contents; returning research books to the library, handing in the final piece of a 20-page research project, and selling back textbooks to the bookstore.

      Yet my backpack wasn't empty. For reasons unknown, I couldn't sell one of my books back to the school. The textbook was from my genocide-focused writing class. Over the semester, we had read, discussed, and written about several different genocides. The course was heavy, not only in terms of work-load but also in the emotional energy it took to focus so much time on how humans have mistreated each other throughout history. It was a class I never want to repeat, but am glad I took. Just as that textbook and what it represents travel with me into this next semester, so do the rest of the memories and lessons I've gained during my first semester of college (although the memories are much brighter than that of the textbook!).

      My story is probably very similar to that of all the other freshmen on campus. I arrived at the beginning of the semester with a mixture of fear and excitement about entering this new stage of life. I wasn't sure if I'd ever find my way around campus (I did), be able to make friends (I did), or survive the class with that one professor (I did, and, ironically, he turned into my favorite professor). Now, having completed my first semester, I know everything there is to know about college (hah! I wish!). But, in all seriousness, my fears gave way as I pushed past them and gained experience. I've grown to love college, the community I've been able to find, and the vast amount of knowledge I have available to me there.

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     To my fellow college students, and really anyone reading this - our lives just took a sudden turn because of Covid-19. This old post reminds me of all of the hope and excitement that filled me at the end of my first semester. 

     Recent events threatened to crush all that excitement and joy. 

     The road ahead of us is hard and unexpected. But we don't begin this journey empty handed. With us, we carry the memories and experiences from our first semester and a half. We carry the knowledge gained. We carry the friendships forged.

    The format for the rest of the semester is foreign to many of us. If you're like me, you're anxious about how it's going to go. But that doesn't mean the rest of this semester doesn't hold opportunities. That doesn't mean it couldn't hold new friendships or the continuation of old ones. That doesn't mean that the rest of this semester couldn't turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to us.

     I know the future probably looks pretty bleak right now. I feel that too. But we cannot move forward with that mindset if we want to succeed this semester. The rest of this semester is what we make of it despite the challenges we are facing. 

    When I started this year of college I was scared, uncertain, and timid. By the end of the semester, I had realized I was stronger than I knew. Once again, we're starting on a completely new path. We've done it before. We can do it again. You've got this.

Photo by Scott Webb on Unsplash