Two years ago my dance team captain sent the whole team two articles about graduating-this is just one of them. As a sophomore, I began to dread graduation. Unfortunately, it’s all too close now, but I will pass this on to anyone who is lucky enough to still have some time left at Ohio University.
Live it up in all four years – By Mike Bruzzese, 1999
Well, kids, it seems that someone in the administration slipped up, and I’m actually graduating June 12. Yep, after four years, two majors, no marketable skills, I’m outta here. Allow me to apologize in advance because I never have allowed a serious word to be printed under my name in these pages, but apparently some strange side effects come along with advanced senioritis. So screw me for being sentimental – here goes.
I doubt there will be a commencement speech in the world that isn’t looking far into the future. Everyone will talk about the future to come when the clock strikes in the new millennium. I’m afraid no one will worry about who they kiss at midnight.
During this short time at college, there is this tendency to look at what’s to come. People have their minds so far in the future that they’re not enjoying the present. My only words to those just starting at Ohio University are to make sure you live to the fullest every moment you spend here. Enough people tell you to study, to work hard and to think about your future – someone needs to tell you to love the short years you have here.
And it is short. We all had an army of old folks telling us how quickly our time here would pass. The thing is, you can’t really begin to grasp how right they are until you stare at the end, wondering where the days went. I vaguely remember standing in from of Biddle Hall, watching my parents drive off and waving until they were out of sight.
A few moments passed, and now Ill be doing that same wave back at this place I’ve come to love. All I can say is that for me and mine, well; we did what we could and lived every day. Make sure you all do the same. I mean, where else are you going to be surrounded by 20,000 new people and consider 16 hours a week a full schedule? Live up every second of it while you’re here, kids.
Ten years from now, you won’t remember whether you got an “A-“or a “B” on that exam and neither will anyone else. But you will remember the nights you stayed up with your friends laughing until teary-eyed at one another’s stories. You won’t care that a paper was a day late, but you will care that you took the chance to spend some extra time with someone you care about.
You never will tell anyone what an ideal student you were. What you will tell them about are the home movies, the drunken escapades, the mud football, the idiots you made of yourselves at the Miami games, the days at the lake, the snowball fights, the squirt gun fights, the Halloween costumes, the wrestling matches and the goofy stuff you, for some reason, find entertaining.
You’ll learn a lot here, but it won’t have to do with politics, physics, or interpersonal communication. You’ll learn that in 10 weeks you can be tighter with friends than in the 18 years before. You’ll learn some of your best friends will be the most different from you. You’ll learn that you can tell friends you love them through an inside joke, a toast before a drink, a late night wrestling match , a one-on-one basketball game or the way you tell them goodbye.
This is where you’ll live the stories you’ll share about your friends when you toast at their wedding. This is where you’ll fall in love for the first time. This may be where you fall in love for the last time. This is where the memories that will forever make you want to laugh and cry will become yours. You’ll have your good times here. You’ll have your bad times here. But all your times will be here.
But you can’t understand how quickly those times pass. Live each one of them to the fullest, kids. Worry about the rest of your life later, it still will be there. In the meantime, squeeze it all out of every little moment while you can. In no time at all, you’ll find yourself with nothing but memories in your heart and tears in your eye as you say goodbye.
