Oftentimes, a senior’s last opinions piece will be about their reflections on their time here or some kind of recall – their last little bit of nostalgia. Luckily I’ve already gotten the majority of that out of my system, and will only cry pathetically when I’m a few more weeks down the road and the shock wears off.
In all seriousness though, I’ve waxed nostalgic long enough this semester. Now that my time in college is at an end, I feel it’s more important than ever to address an issue we don’t really enjoy talking about: dealing with the bad stuff in our lives. This class of graduating seniors is fully aware of the trials ahead of them; I would argue we all know there are going to be moments of our lives in these next few years that hit us harder than any before. Our potential for great success is not possible without the chance of abysmal failure.
That pain, however, is what makes the good all the richer.
The ever-incorrigible Dread Pirate Roberts of the cult classic “The Princess Bride” once told Princess Buttercup, “Life is pain, highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something.” I say this:
- So that I get in one last Princess Bride reference, and
- Because it has a ring of truth to it.
This may sound heartless, and you may ask yourself, “What can a 20-something graduating college really know?” But I think we carry our hurts for the rest of our lives. It’s the process of accepting them into our identities in a healthy way and forging them into something beautiful that’s the trick of living; then it all comes running together in glorious color – the good, the bad and the sea in-between.
I’ve never been one much for goodbyes, so I will settle for this: I may be an idealistic yet-untested 20-something, but I don’t believe that’s a bad thing to be.
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