Breeze Perspectives: Fourth-and-a-half year
Don’t’ hate me because I’m much older than you
By Mason Miller, contributing writer
Posted on August 28, 2006

Remember when the JMU Bookstore was in Transitions? Remember when Einstein’s Bagels was Door 4 Subs? Remember when Wal-Mart wasn’t even there? Probably not, but I do. Why? Because I am one of the few, proud JMUers who have been here since 2002.

Don’t call me a fifth year, though. I’m graduating in December, and I’d prefer to be called a fourth-and-a-half-year senior. Just because I’m graduating in December and not in fancy May, with its sunny weather and real keynote speakers (although I’m looking forward to hearing what the deputy dean of parking has to say), doesn’t detract from the fact that I’m still technically graduating in 2006. It’s the same 2006 I planned on graduating in four years ago when I came to JMU. Things happened. Mainly, I changed majors after three years.

I digress. I’m not here to talk about myself. I’m here to impart my wisdom, from the experiences I have accumulated, as a seasoned veteran of this university, to you. I’m especially interested in reaching out to the 2010ers. While you were in your mother’s womb, I was picking out colored pencils for pre-school. While you were playing on the monkey bars during sixth-grade recess, I was in a classroom learning probability and discrete mathematics with my graphing calculator. While you were attending your middle school graduation, I was moving out of my freshman dorm. I think you get the point. I’m old. Not old in life (I’m only 22), but definitely old for college. With age comes wisdom.

Cherish your teen years, that’s what I say. Sure, 21 can be a fun milestone, but don’t dwell on getting there and miss the opportunities for underage debauchery. The freshman dorm is the Mecca for fun. The late night Easy Mac-eating sessions. The re-arranging of your RA’s precious bulletin boards. Walking in on your roommate with a girl (OK, that wasn’t fun after the second time). Walking in on your suitemate (I just had a knack for these things, what can I say?). The coed mingling. Oh, the coed mingling.

Excited yet? Good, you should be. Consider me your personal spirit squad, in charge of getting you amped for college, if leaving Mom and Dad hasn’t already.

The age of 21 will come, and once it does, so will the imposing reality of your inevitable graduation. Shhhh. Don’t think of that. I shouldn’t have scared you like that, and I apologize. I’m not going to use the popular Ferris Bueller quote — are you old enough to know Ferris Bueller? — about life moving fast, because I think you get the point. Don’t be in a hurry to get out of here. The knowledgeable Billy Madison once said, in reference to elementary school, “Stay here. Stay here as long as you can. For the love of God, cherish it. You have to cherish it.” It just as easily applies to college, and it’s a mantra I’m living by as a fourth-and-a-half-year senior.

Mason Miller is a “senior” SMAD major.