Each day for a couple of months, I would wake up to the song “Where are you Going” by the Dave Matthews Band.  Then one day two weeks before the first day of classes, the song blared out of my iPhone at nine a.m. and I hit the snooze button.  I was lying in bed for another 30 minutes thinking about the significance of the question, “Where are you going?”

Quite seriously, it had finally hit me that I was entering my senior year without any clue as to where I was going. Naturally, I started panicking. What if I never figured out where I was going? What if I didn’t have the tools to get wherever I decided I wanted to go? How did a Dave Matthews song spark me to have an existential breakdown?

The two weeks that followed this moment were full of anxiety. I started to feel like I had gone to college without any direction or purpose. I love learning, but loving learning is not enough to make a living.

After camping for five days in the wilderness and plenty of time alone with my thoughts, I reached somewhat of a conclusion.

My moment of panic was not a result of not knowing what I wanted to do, but rather fear of not being able to accomplish my goals. It wasn’t about being lost, but feeling like my entire future hangs on the balance of Graduate school applications, the GREs and the completion of my senior year.

I know that I am not alone. Most seniors are beginning to feel the time crunch. We enter college feeling like we have all the time in the world to make a decision, and the time flies by.

So what do we do in the meantime?

This is the time to get our lives in order and figure out exactly where we see ourselves in five years.  Once we have figured that out, we must take the proper steps to getting there. What is the point of realizing that you want to work on development in third world countries if you fail to take the proper steps to actually getting there?

I realize, this is all easier said than done. Each time I look at my scheduled GRE prep hours and Graduate school research hours, I cringe and die a little on the inside. It means that I’ll be leaving the one place that I have grown very comfortable and leaving behind the people that I have grown to love.

However, we do not really leave these things behind. They have contributed into shaping the people we have become, and they are always a part of us.

We don’t realize it because we are often too busy griping about the shortcomings of Iona or the things that we wished were different, but this place has become familiar, comfortable and part of most of us.

So to my fellow seniors: Be responsible this year and work hard to figure out where YOU are going after college. Make as many memories as possible with the people that have always been there and will continue to be there. Be thankful for every opportunity you have ever had. Have as much fun as possible – we only have one year left and it is certainly time to be bold!

To contact The Ionian’s Heather Nannery, e-mail her at [email protected].