It’s not easy to think about graduating from Geneseo in two weeks. It’s a sore subject among fellow seniors - something we’re all thinking about but no one wants to discuss. But I have to accept it: I’m leaving Geneseo and it’s a good thing.
This isn’t to say that my experience here hasn’t been incredible or that I won’t miss my closest friends, or the house I feel so at home in or Geneseo in the springtime. I will - probably desperately so about a month after graduation. But I’m also excited to start building a career or to explore another state. To start doing capital-A adult things like opening up an individual retirement account. It sounds boring, but I’m looking forward to moving on to another part of my life.
Despite this, I’ll always carry with me the things I learned at Geneseo. While visiting from Long Island for the first time, I remember how the Genesee Valley views blew me away and how I knew I wanted this landscape to be a part of my college experience.
A week later I put in my deposit, and four months later, I sat frightened in my half-put together freshman dorm room wondering how I was going to survive the first night without a toothbrush. The fear and anxiety subsided as I fell into a group of friends I could take solace in being with. Four years later, these are still some of my best friends, people who have brought me continued happiness and will always be folks I know I can rely on.
I’ve found happiness in other aspects of campus life. In the department of communication and the English department, I found two groups of faculty deeply devoted to sharing their disciplines with eager students. At WGSU-FM, I found a community of weirdos who love music as much as I do. And at The Lamron I found other nerds who care sincerely about student journalism and who encouraged me to take leadership risks I wouldn’t have taken otherwise.
All of these pieces of my undergraduate life have come together to make me a different person than I was on that first, terrifying night of college. On the night of graduation, I’m sure I’ll feel like I did that first night - horrified at the prospect of having to reestablish myself in a new community. We all have to do it sometime though, and I’m ready. But hey, call me in six months. I’ll probably beg to come crash on your Court Street apartment’s living room futon.