Often in life, we stop to remember and revel the past – the moments of triumph, experiences of tragedy, and those emotional highs and lows of life.
On May 8th, college –the first 4 years of traditional higher-education, will be in the past for MHC’s graduating seniors.
For these soon-to-be college graduates, college will not be remembered as just an event – it will resound into their futures as the bridge between adolescence and adulthood.
Often when we hear people of our parents’ generation discuss ‘college days’ it sounds so far away.
For many of us, that concept of college as being far back in our pasts is a foreign idea. But now, the ever-widening gap between college years and the present begins.
Although college has shaped each of us, we will continue to change. And although it made be hard to let go of these seemingly endless days of our youth – they are just that – our youth.
You cannot go back, and you cannot change what you did or did not do. In these days, we have learned more about ourselves and the world than any of us thought possible. They were, or should have been, learning days in many ways.
On our journey to becoming lifetime learners, we now begin the transition of being purely learners to teachers. Whether we choose to admit it, there is a generation of people now younger than us. We can teach them something about life.
It is natural to relish the past from time to time – but do not let it take you away from the present, nor hinder your future. You have spent the past four years learning about potential careers that you might pursue. Now, go out and apply your knowledge. Live it. Live what you have learned.
The farther we get from the past, the more we may realize one important factor that Angela Hunt, author of The Note, recognizes: “We do ourselves a disservice to yearn for what we’ve lost. For if we try to find it again, we might discover faults and blemishes that memory has been kind enough to erase.”
Hopefully, memories will erase the feelings of disappointment when we made less-than-desired grades and the gnawing dread of impending final exams every semester. Hopefully, the heartbreaks, the loss of friendships, and all the factors about college that we will not miss, but may not want to admit to ourselves, will be erased.
We seem to glorify yesterday when today is not what we planned. But if we keep living in the past, then our present will leave us behind. Live in the here and now – reach forward for tomorrow not back for yesterday.
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