A final-semester senior gives his manifesto on what each year of college affords.
It’s my last semester of college, and it is time to get real. It is the end of my academic training, the end of a cycle of my life but the beginning of a new chapter: adulthood. This transition is an exciting, bittersweet moment where we can decide if we are on the right path or completely misguided. But one thing is certain — in only seven semesters, I went through a period of self-reflection and self-discovery that allowed me to cut the parental umbilical cord and truly understand who I was as an individual.
As freshmen in college, we go through exciting moments like leaving home and being “free” — no curfew, no chores and no mandatory vegetables for dinner. By the time we are sophomores, we are either excited about traveling abroad or embodying the typical college lifestyle. As a junior, we are obsessed with landing an internship, and finally, by the time we are seniors, we realize that we need to get a job and pay our bills.
But this transition from freshman to senior is more than just transitioning between college to adulthood; it is indeed a time of maturity and personal growth. It is a phase where we challenge ourselves, experience new things and explore our true identity.
Four years went by in the blink of an eye, but the changes that it made are noticeable. Once a friend, whom I met during my freshman year, said that I was different, that I had changed. But did I really change and become a different person? I don’t think so.
College is a period of self-discovery where we allow our inner-self to flourish and become who we are meant to be — or at least begin the process. It is not simply a change but instead a maturation period. We are in a wholly different culture and environment. We are instinctively influenced by our surroundings: They allow us to get ourselves out there and help us step away from our comfort zone and feel “uncomfortable.”
In almost four years, my career goals have stayed the same, but what is different today is how I see my aspirations and how I go about attaining goals. As a freshman, I wanted to be a movie and television producer, hoping to win an Emmy or an Oscar. As the years progressed, I realized that it is not just a TV show or film that I want to create, but it is more about the core of my interest to inspire people to make a change through the stories that I am telling.
Semester eight has begun, and as I recollect my collegiate years, I spend more time focusing on the things that I have discovered about myself rather than the changes that happened in my life. With this new phase, I conclude a seminal phase of my life, but I now phase into my new life filled with bigger hopes of more challenges, learning and growth.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————-
Follow Al Lai on Twitter: @AlInMalibu
