As I read Ionian’s that had come out in years past, I had always noticed that the seniors on the staff, for whatever reason, would tend to write “mushier” and “mushier” columns as the year progressed. What I mean is this: people, from out of left field, would all of a sudden get really sentimental towards the end of their senior year. They would remember the good times they had throughout their college career, and the bad, and they would put it into words. I always told myself that, if I was in a position to write a bi-weekly column, I would never get like that.

And so, I begin this column with a heavy, heavy disclaimer. And that disclaimer is that, like those who have come before me, I have suddenly become what I’ll deem the “sentimental senior.”

Within the past two weeks, I have seen a variety of days pass in which I’ve done “senior things.”

For instance, I had what the Honors Program and our own Professor Zaino calls the privilege of presenting my Honors Thesis to the rest of the Iona College community. And while I told myself that I would never feel it, I must confess that I am immensely proud of that achievement. We had a nice celebration to follow, and it got me to thinking of just how much longer I would actually be celebrating.

Immediately following the week of my Honors Thesis, I had the daunting task of beginning to apply to jobs. Jobs. Did you hear that? The prospect is fearful—in just a few months (Spring Break is only a week and a half away) I’ll presumably (and hopefully) find myself working for some organization somewhere doing what grown people do and getting paid for it. Yikes!

In many ways, I’m ready for it. And in many ways, I’m completely and utterly lost.

I’ve spent the last four years in a sort of fantasy, a fantasy that at times seemed like a nightmare from an intense course load, but that, for the most part, was rosy. And now, in just about 3 months, all that is going to be over. The world, as I had come to find it, will be suddenly slid out from underneath my feet.

And I’ve come to find that, despite my always saying I wouldn’t, that I will, as I wrote in my Homecoming column, actually miss this place. I’ll miss the people that Iona has given me the opportunity to meet, from my collegiate cohorts and classmates stuck in what sometimes seemed like a long struggle right on down to some of the Facilities people I’ve gotten to chat with working the morning shift at the Front Desk and some of the great faculty I’ve had the opportunity to work with. It’s a little crazy to think that one place could provide all this for a person. But I guess that’s college, right?

I don’t know if it will turn out to be the best time of my life—I’d like to be an optimist and think that life will get better and that it’s not all downhill from here. But I do know for sure that it will stand as one of the better times of my life, and that it’ll be a time that I won’t forget anytime soon.

Or, depending on how you look at it, maybe it will be a time where I spend more minutes trying to remember what exactly I did than minutes not forgetting. But that’s just the by-product of a good time, right?

Seriously though, my time spent here at Iona is going to stand as one of the greatest memories that I’ll have. And, to all of you who know me now and enjoy my company, I hope that, even though our lives will change drastically, we can stay connected and find time to enjoy each other’s company down the road.

And even though life’s going to throw us all a series of curve balls, I’m confident that I’ll be able to stick to that.

To contact The Ionian’s Ryan Karpusiewicz, e-mail him at [email protected].