The thought of graduating college in nearly two weeks feels surreal. I know that this feeling is mutual with a lot of my peers, and I am aware that many, many graduates before me have felt the same thing.  

In freshman year, this looming threat of graduation seemed lightyears away. I figured that I would have plenty of time to accomplish everything I could ever dream of. I thought I would have forever to make new friends, join new clubs and experience new things before my undergrad would conclude.  

While I did have four years, 48 months, 212 weeks in college, I can confirm the cliché that it goes by in the blink of an eye. I regret the opportunities I did not take, the ones that I put off til the next day, believing that there would be endless “tomorrows.” As a senior who is 18 days away from graduation, I can say that the “tomorrows” are finite.  

This reflection is not meant to be a downer, it is actually intended to be the opposite. While my college experience did not live up to all my hopes and expectations, I feel that I was blessed with a unique, albeit difficult at times, learning opportunity.  

One of the difficult aspects of life is that sometimes it takes a tough lesson to hammer home an even tougher point. The point is opportunities don’t always throw themselves at you, new relationships don’t always knock on your front door, and even when they do, those chances don’t tend to stick around and wait very long for you to act.  

My experience has taught me to stop pushing things off, to put a halt to my constant “I’ll get around to it” mentality. Surprisingly, procrastination does not lead to many positive outcomes. I have suffered the consequences of my own inactivity, and I do not plan on continuing this trend.  

My final year at Iona has taught me that it is never too late to turn things around. While I regret the chances I never took, I look forward to the opportunities that have yet to present themselves. I am proud of the fact that I am not the same person I was when I began my college education, and I am not the same person that loathed my sophomore and junior years.