Four or Five Years

By Brent Ramirez
Blog Content Contributor

The fall semester is here and for some students, it’s their first day diving into a completely different world. To some, it may be just another semester, but for myself and many other students, this week marks the beginning of the end, the beginning of our senior year of college. I can’t speak on behalf of all seniors here at Texas State, but personally, it’s hard to comprehend just where all the time went.

It’s crazy to think that nearly four or five years ago, we were sitting in class waiting for the bell to ring, waiting for the Pledge of Allegiance and morning announcements to usher in the new school day. We would sit and laugh with friends in the cafeteria, or head off campus for lunch, exploring our new freedoms as upper classmen. These were times when some of our biggest worries were figuring out what to wear just to impress the girl from sixth period and hopefully elicit some reaction from her, or trying to decide if we wanted the imitation-chicken burger or the cardboard-pizza for lunch.

Four or five years ago, we were at Friday night football games, taking the field, screaming in the stands and playing our horns. We spent time working hard to get ready for the next game, competition or performance, putting in time and effort to hone and perfect our craft. We spent months getting ready for upcoming school events like Homecoming or Prom, hoping our proposals would go as planned and nabbing us the perfect date to the dance.   

Four or five years ago, we were going through things that our young minds at the time believed were the end of the world. Things like that one project that took us down a whole letter grade or that really bad case of heartbreak that made us believe that we had lost everything. But we got through it all.  

We got through it, all while exceling in our extracurricular activities and eventually going on to graduate. We got into college and experienced many of the same things we did back in high school. We experienced new things we never would have expected and we immersed ourselves in a whole new world. We came across new ideas and philosophies met new people and tried new things. We lost ourselves, discovered ourselves and sometimes even rediscovered ourselves.

Looking back on it all, it’s amazing to see just how far we’ve come, to acknowledge the culmination of countless all-nighters, meal swipes, bus rides, tears and laughter. It’s finally gotten us here, the final stretch. To some it may not seem like much has changed since high school, but we really have grown so much since then. We have failed and picked ourselves back up enough to get to where we are today, and now we are making those final steps to reach the next chapter in our lives.

While it may seem like the end for many of us, I can tell you all that this is only the beginning. We’ve only lived a portion of our lives and there are so many more things to look forward to. From here on out, the possibilities are endless and the opportunities are out there, ripe for the taking. I encourage you all to capitalize on all of those chances that you may or may not ever receive again. Take that job in California. Spend a year living and learning in a completely new country. If there’s anything we can learn from Nike and post-2013 Shia LaBeouf, it’s to “JUST DO IT!”   

To my fellow seniors: I wish you the best of luck with both your current and future endeavors, and I hope you can continue to look back on these years and recognize just how much you have accomplished. To all my fellow students: Take no one and nothing for granted, and enjoy these next few years. Who knows where we’ll be four or five years from now?