Farewell and Thank You, Boston College

One of the very first memories I have at Boston College is sitting in the hallway of my freshman year dorm with the rest of the girls who lived on my floor. It was uncomfortably hot and our RA was giving us instructions on the upcoming Freshman Convocation, our first real introduction to the Boston College community where we would walk down Linden Lane together as the Class of 2016.

“Enjoy it, ladies, because this is your peak,” our RA joked with us. “There is nothing better than being a freshman girl at Boston College.” She went on to explain to us that we would never be as desirable or attractive than we were at this exact moment. She explained that it would all be downhill after freshman year, when we would begin our inevitable journey of becoming washed-up senior girls—the absolutely bottom of the social totem pole.

As the last month of BC closes in, and that last walk down Linden Lane as the Class of 2016 gets closer and closer, I can’t help but think about that moment before Convocation. Maybe I am a washed-up senior girl. I spend a significant amount of my time watching the HGTV show Fixer Upper instead of going out to bars. A lot of my closet consists of clothing from Ann Taylor that I brag can be transitioned from day to night. I didn’t pick classes for next semester, and I didn’t go through the hell that is the BC housing lottery. The only thing left for me at Boston College is my diploma, and that is really difficult to wrap my head around. 

Although it makes me sad that my days here are almost gone, I’m ready. I’m sick of the pressure to enjoy “the last.” The last football tailgate. The last 100 days. The last Marathon Monday. It stresses me out that there is the expectation that the end of BC is the end of the best part of our lives. I’m so sick of people telling me how much life after college just sucks. Boston College has been an amazing, transformative four years, but it is by no means the best four years of my life, just as freshman year was definitely not the peak of my BC experience.

I’m excited to start focusing on the many, many “firsts” that are to come after graduation instead of focusing so much on “the last.” The first job. The first apartment. The beginning of a journey I can’t even imagine yet, and a journey that I am ready to take because of my experience at Boston College. This is the first time where change and the uncertainty of the future don’t paralyze me with anxiety. I didn’t peak freshman year, and I am not peaking now. 

Thank you, Boston College for the past four years and for the building blocks that will help me keep climbing to that said elusive peak. I hope that one day I can give back to the world even a little bit of everything that you have given to me. To the Class of 2016, I wish you all the best in what I hope are the best years of your life.

“There are much better things ahead than anything we leave behind.” C.S. Lewis