I won’t lie; as a senior in college, I cannot wait for graduation. However, one thing that has been on my mind as the weeks pass, is what my friend Lataysia had said to me in the very beginning of last semester. A former SVC student, she graduated last year in the spring with a handful of my other friends. Since she had graduated, I had minimal contact with her– that was until she saw me post a video of Tanisha and I setting up her dorm room for this year.

Upon seeing the video, Lataysia messaged me, telling me how much she missed us and SVC and wished that she was coming back for another semester. This was far different from the Lataysia I knew, as she had been dying to graduate the previous semester. However, the thing that stuck with me the most was that she had warned me not to take advantage of it but to appreciate my final year at SVC. Honestly, I believe that to an extent I did appreciate it, but I also know that I wished for it to be over far more often than I embraced it.

Now, merely a week before graduation, I can’t help but feel a bit bittersweet towards the end of this chapter in my life. It’s exciting to know that I will be done with school and moving into my first apartment, but it’s rather sad to know that everything as I know it is changing. I will no longer see the dining hall staff that I have come to love, the professors who brighten my day, or the various staff and faculty members I run into in the halls, and that is rather heartbreaking to think about.

So, as I finish up my last semester here at SVC, I urge you to appreciate your time here. Sometimes going to Southern Vermont College can feel a bit monotonous and as if its a bit too small for comfort, but, if you’re anything like me, you’re going to miss this place when you leave. So stop and smell the roses! Take in that beautiful view of the green mountains, because, before you know it, those four years will fly by and you’ll be out of here before you know it!