I’m about two and a half years into my Loyola career, and this is the second thing I’ve ever had published in The Maroon. I switched my major last year to journalism, and I’m just now taking my first reporting class. Am I behind? Probably. Victory lap semester, anyone?
When I look back on my life in college, I don’t remember much. It came and went faster than I ever would’ve expected. I don’t even feel like I’ve accomplished as much as I would’ve wanted. I still, however, have more than a year to make my mark, whatever that may be.
A year from now, what am I supposed to think? What am I supposed to do? I’ve always thought of college as being this amazingly important time in one’s life where everything falls into place, and you come out of it with a social life equivalent to Van Wilder and swimming in sweet cash from a dream job.
Well, the money thing was immediately out of the question as soon as I got here. The social life? I’m still working on that, but what about those optimistic aspirations about the future? Surely, those would manifest as I progressed through the years.
Not so much, as many students may find.
So, what about the seniors who are on their way out? Did they do something that I’m missing? I asked seniors Kyle Vogt and Huntleigh Gilbard, both political science majors, and James McBride, theater major, how they felt about the impending doom that is adult life.
“In college, you’re in order. You know when you’re graduating and what you’re doing. You’re secure,” Vogt said.
Life after college is different, however. “There’s no transition. You’re thrown into the professional world without a clue, and that’s a scary thought,” Gilbard said.
Both Gilbard and Vogt (and I guess myself, too) will miss the social aspect of college. “People flock to colleges even if they aren’t in college,” Vogt said.
I, as well as many seniors, find it hard to come to terms with never having these four years again. That is, unless you take that victory lap I was talking about earlier.
McBride fears that the values and organizations he worked with on campus won’t live up to his expectations. “I’m not scared, though. I’ve done a lot of work to get to this point,” he said.
I’m a little worried. This semester is going faster than I would’ve ever expected, and I know I’m not the only one feeling that. It’s scary because it’s about to be the time where I have to start getting everything in my life prepared for life after college. I’m not quite sure where to begin, but maybe I can get my adviser to do my taxes.
So get up, do something productive. You’re only here for a short time. Use it.
Eric Knoepler can be reached at
