I and many others on campus are on the dark side of the moon. Graduation looms ahead for those who will walk across the stage in either December or May, and with our eventual expulsion from the diplomatic bubble and into the world beyond, questions from family, friends, and ourselves are persistent and perplexing.
What are your plans after graduation?
Are you going to stay in school?
Where will you work?
Equally frightening, unsolicited commentary is offered.
Get out more and network, network, network.
Don’t look at that job sector, it’s unstable.
You should have studied something with a clear career path.
On a positive note, although there’s a bittersweetness to the final year, the final chance to take advantage of everything Franklin & Marshall has to offer, there’s joy in pushing myself to explore different things. Cheering at a football game for the first time in my four years, decked in Diplomat blue sunglasses and beads. Taking a leadership class that I would’ve never seen myself taking as a freshman.
Instead of anxiously counting down the days I have left here, I’m looking back at how much I’ve grown, and the people who’ve lifted me up to the stars and back again throughout this journey.
Senior Teagan Durkin is a Staff Writer. Her email is tdurkin@fandm.edu.