Our Last Semester

by The Cowl Editor on January 19, 2017


Opinion


photo courtesy of Pinterest.com

by Brianna Abbott ’17

Opinion Co-Editor

Earlier this week, roommates were happily unpacking their clothes, students were bracing themselves for another semester of learning, and friends were dashing through Ray to tackle each other and say “welcome back.” It was the first day of spring semester. For those who didn’t want to leave in the first place, it was an anticipated reunion. For those who had a tough time the semester before, it was a second chance. For the Class of 2017, there’s a thick truth hanging over these happy reunions: it’s our last semester.

We have been preparing for our last semester, for our graduation from Providence College, since before we even stepped foot on campus for the first time. The entire point of college was to graduate, right? College was simply the next stage of our lives, another stop on our journey.

We heard rumors about how much it was going to change us—how we will either love or hate our freshman year roommates, how we are going to pull all-nighters with people that would feel like family, how everything that we think will be questioned and altered, hopefully for the better, and how we will not want to leave.

Whether or not we believed the rumors, the Class of 2017 marched forward to meet their new friends, their fate, their super creepy college mascot, and now we’ve almost reached the end—almost. Fortunately for us, there’s still time.

There’s still time to make up for lost time and for the inevitable mistakes that have plagued our college careers. Maybe some feel like they have missed out on extracurriculars, or spending time with friends rather than studying, or drifted from a person that they never planned on drifting from. Whatever the burden we carry might be, that burden does not have to follow us to graduation day.

Our college careers are far from over. Well, mathematically that is not true, but there’s a lot that can be done in a single semester. We can correct those mistakes or regrets—or at least we can try. We can reach out to old friends that we lost or make new ones. There is still time, so we should not act like it’s over.

We can also  cherish the time we have left. Start taking more pictures and saving embarrassing Snapchats of friends—we’re going to need them when we want to reminisce during our inevitable post-college slump. We can complain forever about the paper that’s due tomorrow that we have not started, but suffering with our friends and ordering pizza in the library will be a fond memory once we move our tassels to the other side.

The College is giving us plenty of opportunity to cherish the time, too, especially with all of the Centennial Events, like the Black and White Ball. Senior events, BOP nights, or things going on in our dorms may seem corny. Participate anyway.

Most importantly, we need to do whatever makes us happy. There’s no reason not to be optimistic moving into our last semester, but we have to make a conscious effort to make it the best semester we can.

It’s the last fresh start we’re going to get in Friartown. Use it wisely.