I am not 22 yet (eight days out), but I couldn’t give up a chance to dissect a lyric from an artist who somehow understands me before I can understand myself. At 18, I felt wise above my years. I now leave Stevens older, but not wiser, and with even more questions about the world than when I started.
Today is graduation day, and it all feels so weird, for lack of a better term. It’s one of those days when you can feel time moving. There’s so much comfort in Hoboken that I feel like I’m leaving behind: seeing familiar faces on walks by the pier, being a regular at Choc O Pain (my only claim to fame), and knowing where I’m going without having to pull out Google Maps. More importantly, the support and solace of my friends, the familiarity of my apartment, and the countless memories are all things that feel devastating to leave behind. All I can think is “How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.”
If you’ve read any of my Editorials during my time on The Stute, you must already know I’m a sappy person. Graduation has only amplified this part of myself and has forced me to spend (too much) time reflecting. I came into my freshman year having very specific notions about what my undergraduate years would be like. I thought I’d spend hours in dorms/apartments discussing the meaning of life, among other pretentiously intellectual conversations. But now in hindsight, I see that college was not really about understanding the meaning of life, but rather what life means to me.
What does life mean to me? The only conclusion I’ve come to is that life is an endless cycle of living, learning, and applying what you’ve learned. The learning aspect, I think, is less to do with academics, and more to do with interpersonal relationships and yourself. It’s important to me that I learn from those around me, and it’s equally important to learn more about myself, a goal I’ve recently discovered is asymptotic because there will always be more to understand about yourself. Younger me would have laughed at these simple conclusions, but they really are the only certain truths about this world I’ve been able to extract. There’s something so wonderful about abstracting this daunting labyrinthine life into such basic terms.
What does life mean to you? I got coffee with one of my mentors at Stevens recently, and there’s one thing she told me that really stuck out to me: “We all live in our own world.” We are engulfed by our own thoughts and ways of thinking, and can only understand a person based on how much information they communicate with us. I cannot begin to think about what it would be like to be you, regardless of if we’ve only spoken a few times, or if we’ve lived under the same roof for two years (Hi Amna). There is such a distinctive wall between us, but despite this, we still manage to create such strong emotional connections with people. I implore you to think about what life means to you in the context of your own experiences, but also through the lens of how other people have shaped you.
As a whole, I’m satisfied with my time at Stevens, but I don’t think I’m satisfied with being a student. I’m still yearning for those sparks of intellectual curiosity, connections with people from different backgrounds, and time to explore my professional interests, all of which, for me, are more attainable in an academic environment. I’m sure my Master’s degree will leave me with even more questions, and I couldn’t be more excited to explore them.
I would be lying if I said I didn’t miss the ingenuous person I was at 18, but I’m happier with the person I am at 22. There are so many people to thank for getting me to where I am today; my parents, my friends, my professors, and my mentors, they’ve all made such a positive impact on my life, and I couldn’t be more thankful to have such a strong support system. I’m eternally grateful to The Stute for giving me a voice on campus. I’m thankful to Sigma Delta Tau for introducing me to so many that I likely would not have met. I am thankful for Encouraging Women Across All Borders for unveiling confidence within me that I initially could not find myself.
I’m excited to see what the 22nd chapter of life holds. I’ve managed to romanticize the whole thing in my head, which I’ve found is not a bad way to enjoy the world. I’m excited for you too, and I’m so proud to be sitting with you here today. We’ll always have one thing in common: we experienced college at the same place and time, and we’ll all always be connected in that way, at the very least. We collectively crushed college like a grape and it’s time to pop the cork and celebrate. Congrats grads, now go do your thing.
