My last first day

Jess Emery

On Tuesday, Jan. 21, I had first day jitters for the last time. 

I packed my bag. 

I looked at my schedule a thousand times to make sure I knew where my classes were.

I’d hoped to make good first impressions on new professors. 

All for the very last time, as I am a second-semester senior. 

It’s weird finally being here. Seventeen years of school to walk across a stage and enter the Real World. Where I’ll get a Real Job and have Real Problems and a Real Life. 

That’s how adults always talked about it at least.  

I’m relieved I still have a whole semester left since I don’t feel quite prepared for the realness of it all. 

Everything feels in its place. This is the first semester I’ve ever had a schedule I really like (I have Fridays off! Yay!). I have classes with my favorite professors (shoutout Flo Keyes and Dave Blow for helping me to the finish line of my education). 

I have a really strong group of friends who I spend time with every week. I feel really secure in my major.  

Now all that is left is four months and graduation. It really has gone by in such a flash. I look back on the last four years and see how much of grown. I think back on role models I had as a first- and second-year student and I now see myself in that position for my younger friends. 

Time is moving fast, but I’m so excited to not be focused on the future. 

This is one of the first times I feel still. I’m cherishing my classes, friends, and life here in Castleton and I’m not just thinking about some other time and place I’d rather be.  

The last four years have really changed my life. It’s weird how people talk about looking back on moments that change your life, and I am currently, knowingly, in one of those moments. 

A bit daunting, to be honest, because there’s no way this time isn’t going to affect me forever.  

 Now, that being said, let’s all take a moment to knock on wood that I’m not missing any graduation requirements. It would be super awkward if I said all this just to not graduate in May.  

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