Dear Class of 2020…We Did It!!
I don’t think it’s an understatement to say that this has to be the most bizarre way to be graduating college. I think at this point we’ve all come to terms with the fact that we won’t be getting a big sense of closure on this chapter of our lives and we are all just trying our hardest to start the next one, no matter how difficult that may be. Although we won’t be getting the closure we expected, I wanted to be able to give the graduates on our team a chance to reminisce on their time in undergrad:
Alyssa Micalizzi
I have a lot of favorite moments of undergrad; late nights in the Professional Writing lounge where I could feel myself losing my mind but I had my friends there to lose it with me, wine nights where I’d learn more about my friends in a night than I had in an entire semester, impromptu Disney performances in what once was the writing center. I hold these all near and dear to my heart, but I wouldn’t have any of them if I hadn’t met the absolutely wonderful people I get to call my friends. My favorite memory of my undergrad experience was when my friends and I all sat down for lunch for the first time together. We had one of those huge circle tables in Johnson and we even had to pull a couple more chairs to seat everyone and we decided to try and write a book together. I don’t know where the details of that book is, but I remember it being really cool and really fun to think about. Everyday that I sat down at lunch with my friends I never wanted to leave and I think that’s a good metaphor for how I feel about graduating; I don’t want to leave my friends, but we’ve all got our paths that we need to go on and they’ll cross again one day.
Josh Brubaker
Honestly, my favorite experience has been the transition to online classes. I know a lot of people have been stressing about it but I think it has helped me with my time management skills. I was already good with time management, but this experience has just made me even better. I have to keep up-to-date with all of my assignments and stay organized and on top of things, especially since I will be graduating and really can’t slip up now.
Jasmyn Rivers-Green
I was asked to narrow down my favorite memory of college to write for this send-off, but my favorite memory is probably buried under the mess of emotional turmoil I went through these past four years. I have an idea of where to start digging though. My favorite moments in college will always involve my friends. Playing cards in the Professional Writing lounge at 2 in the morning and making alignment charts, wine nights with Disney movies in someone’s dorm, impromptu Hamilton breakouts during the day, learning the choreography to our favorite K-pop songs, talking in the dining hall for hours, Thursday nights dedicated to Avatar: The Last Airbender, and so, so many more. I think the dilemma is that I don’t have a favorite moment, but I have favorite people, and this is how we are saying goodbye to each other.
Demonte Hampleton
My favorite memory of my undergraduate experience was when I went to go see a comedy show in Sparts den. I can’t remember what year it was or even what the comedian’s name was but what I do remember is that it was hilarious. The performer was a contortionist who performed a lot of cool body movement tricks and did tons of humorous contortion tricks that had me laughing super hard. The performance was just so good I couldn’t help but keep busting a gut every few seconds. At the very end of that performance the comedian did this trick where he flung headbands that he wore on top of his head into the crowd and I managed to catch one. Even though I don’t remember a ton of details of that show, I remember how much fun I had and I kept the headband as a reminder of that.
Rachel Palepale
While I don’t really have a specific memory that I would deem as my favorite, I have to say that my choice to finally sit in the Writing Lab and socialize with my fellow writing peers has been the greatest decision I had made. I transferred to YCP my Junior Year so I felt like everyone had already made their friend groups. I was also really shy when I first came to York College. It took me over a year to build the confidence to sit in the lab and work and begin to talk to others. Little did I know that choosing to do that would lead me to meeting my friends for a coffee at Starbucks, or late-night study sessions at Panera Bread. Now that I don’t have the opportunity to sit with my friends and work or just talk, I realize how important that decision was for me.
Congratulations Class of 2020, though this is not the way that anyone expected us to graduate, we did it! We all deserve to celebrate our accomplishments in any way that we can right now. Remember what you’ve done, who you’ve met, and where you’re going, because I know that it’s going to be great.
