Senior prepares for the future
Graduate reflects on college experience as year ends
By Meghan Marville, contributing writer
Posted on April 24, 2006

“I wish I could go back to college” is my favorite song from the Broadway musical “Avenue Q.” “We could be sitting in a computer lab, 4 a.m., before the final paper is due, cursing the world ’cuz I didn’t start sooner and seeing the rest of the class there too.” Give or take a few nights like that, I’d have to say that my JMU experience has been the best eight years of my life.

After my freshman year I took some time off.  I just wasn’t ready. I moved out of my parents’ house, got a job, a car, my own insurance … a real, live taste of the “real world.” Needless to say, I came screaming back three years later with a much clearer vision for my college career and my future.

In 2002, I went to what would have been my own graduation. Coming back was one of the hardest things I have ever done, but it is easily the best and most important decision I have ever made. There is something to be said about the second time around, and I wouldn’t trade this time for anything.

The two most important things that I have learned in my time here did not always take place in the classroom. The first was to recognize and truly learn from my mistakes. That didn’t always keep me from making them, but it certainly serves as an awesome life lesson. The second is to keep things simple. No matter how complicated a math test, or a dispute with a roommate over whose yogurt got eaten, maybe every problem can be broken down into something simpler and more easily solved.

College is a unique experience. In the military when your time is done, you have to take a class on how to become a civilian again. College graduates don’t get that. We’re staring at the next step, and it’s culture shock. Instead of worrying about things like, “What do you mean that paper’s due tomorrow? How many pages is it supposed to be?” or what to wear to Highlawn, we will soon be faced with what job to chose, where to settle down, who to settle down with and “What do you mean no more student discounts?”

We’ve transitioned from kids to adults. We’re old enough to buy alcohol, buy houses and some of us are even old enough to rent cars without an extra fee. As highschool seniors we were on top of the world, as college freshmen we were back on the bottom again, well maybe even a little lower than that. We had to go back to walking to school, uphill, both ways. Those of us who are here today have clawed our way back to the top once more, only to have the cycle repeat itself. I’m not sure which is better or worse, “freshman” or “entry-level position.”  One thing I did not learn in college is how to make coffee. Thank God for Starbucks.

At the risk of sounding trite, today is the first day of the rest of our lives. Every day is the first day of the rest of your life. Life doesn’t start after you get back from your graduation vacation, it doesn’t start when you move out of your parents’ house, buy your first house or finally land that “perfect” job. It doesn’t start in 2.3 kids and it doesn’t start in 10 pounds. It starts now.

We’re all about to walk away with about a $50,000 piece of paper — give or take a few thousand, depending on what state you’re from. It’s only as good as you make it. Some people say it’s not always what you know, it’s who you know, but at the end of the day you still have to have the goods to back yourself up. I pray every day for those goods. I’m moving to Hollywood, I have to at least pretend to have the goods. One of JMU’s new campaigns tells us to “Be the Change.” Well I say, “Be the goods.”  Be the goods to back up that expensive document.  You’ve earned it.

Aside from health and happiness, my Dad’s advice and wish for his children has always been for us to find a career that we love, because we’ll be doing it every day for the rest of our lives, and to make enough money in that career to live the lifestyle that we would like to live. I whole-heartedly agree. I wish that for myself, and I wish that for all of you. Be the goods. Congratulations, class of 2006.