By Adriana Rodriguez, Staff Writer
You enter college as a freshman with all these great expectations: decorating your dorm, meeting your roommate, joining a club, going to events, and so on. You tell yourself that you’ll have enough time for such things, but every time you find yourself rescheduling or just flat-out canceling your plans.
And then, “next time” becomes “no time” as both your body and mind tire themselves out with courses, jobs, and even family. Suddenly, you’re a senior about to graduate, about to enter the infamous “real world,” only to look back at your college experience and say to yourself these hateful words: “if only.”
As a senior about to graduate this coming May, I know from personal experience how bitter those two words taste. Before attending college, I had long since told myself that I would absolutely study abroad. I looked up programs, met with advisers and discussed finance with my mom—who was really the one that was probably going to end up paying for it—anything and everything that I thought I would need to join the program.
Then reality sets in:
What’s that? I can’t study abroad unless I’m either a junior or senior? That’s fine, it just means more time to prepare.
What? I’m finally a junior but didn’t manage to collect enough funds? It’s cool, I still have next year.
Say what? I can’t go because the borders have been closed due to COVID? Well, ****!
See what I mean? I’m sure I’m not the only college student whose plans have completely derailed from what was expected.
There are many things that I wish I’d done differently or known as a freshman. I wish I’d known about the proper order of Saint Leo University’s English portfolio classes and attended them in the years that they were supposed to be attended in; I wish I’d known what college would really cost; I wish I’d saved up for studying abroad, but most importantly—I wish I’d involved myself more instead of just attending classes and the occasional activity.
And I’m not the only one with regrets.
“I wish I knew about the right people to reach out to for advising. Also, the importance of a syllabus to know what to expect in a class,” said Mattea Ntacyo, a senior majoring in Medical Humanities.
Ntacyo summarized that if there’s one thing everyone should do before graduating from college, it’s networking with people from all over; it’s advice that Lauren Felts, another senior—who is majoring in English: Professional Writing—completely agreed with.
“I wish I knew about how many opportunities Saint Leo provides to help my career. There are a lot of different career opportunities available through Handshake, yet I never knew they existed until my last year here,” said Felts. Even underclassmen have demonstrated having regrets from their freshman year. Burch Greene, a junior majoring in business, claimed that he wishes he’d enjoyed college life itself earlier.
We get so focused on our tasks and duties that we forget to enjoy the little things; it’s sad, really, since they typically end up having the biggest impact on us.
Many freshmen don’t realize this, but the actions they take in their first year in college will serve as the platform for their following years. In fact, their freshman year could even be considered the most important year as it is the foundation of their future.
For example, had I applied for a job in The Lions’ Pride Media Group instead of in the FUZ—previously called The Lion’s Lair—then I would have gained more experience in writing and might have had a different job that better suited my major outside of the university by now.
A word of advice: try to find work in the field you are studying for. This way, college will bring you actual profits instead of just debts.
There’s nothing more bitter than hindsight, something that we upperclassmen in college are unfortunately very aware of. Therefore, it is our duty as upperclassmen to inform our underclassmen—especially freshmen—of the dos and don’ts of college to help them make the most of their college experience. After all, if wishes were fishes, then I’d have majored in sailing.
