Sometimes when my car is out of commission, I take the Green Line from my apartment in Allston to Hynes Convention Center and walk to the Northeastern area. I always feel a sense of comfort when I round the corner of St. Stephen Street onto Gainsborough Street. That feeling, however, tends to change a little bit around this time of year.
Yes, kids, it’s graduation season, and there’s nothing like it.
You can feel it when you walk into the Curry Indoor Quad and there are tables of people handing out tickets to graduation. You can feel it in your upper-level classes, when everyone, even your professors, is smiling more often. I personally feel it especially resonates at Conor Larkin’s where I work, where I have the privilege of watching as many soon-to-be graduates in suits and ties raise a glass to the end of his or her yearlong capstone project.
It’s always fun to watch people celebrate their accomplishments, but I never really put myself in their shoes. Last year some of my best friends graduated, and I remember going to work the night after graduation. I looked around at everyone celebrating and I just kept telling myself, “One more year, Laura, you still have one more year.”
I’ve always been more of a “one day at a time” type of girl. I’ve always planned for the next semester, the next co-op – whatever was right ahead of me. Five years seemed like a long time, so I never really thought college graduation would actually come. But here it is. No more putting off a certain class as long as possible, dealing with registration and certainly no more student discounts.
I don’t yet know what I’m going to do after I graduate. I don’t have a job in my field lined up yet, or an internship. Here’s the thing though: I’m not too worried.
In my four and a half years at Northeastern, I completed three co-ops, made it through classes, edited the school paper in various capacities, travelled to the Middle East, worked at the bar across the street, lived in tons of succinctly different parts of Boston and even sang in the chorus one semester. Thanks to hard work and diligence, as well as the support I received from my outstanding parents, I at 22 I have accomplished more than I could ever dream of.
Sometimes I think about what my life would have been like if I didn’t go to Northeastern. I like to think my own hard work would have led me to have equal amounts of success elsewhere, and I know that’s true to some extent. However, I know that because I made the decision to come here, I was given the resources I needed to do the things that I have done.
No matter what happens in the upcoming months, whether I’m at a newspaper or a big company or behind the bar at Conor’s, I’m going to be just fine. From our co-ops, my classmates and I have acquired the skills and confidence necessary to do well in our first jobs. And for me, that means that even though I don’t have a full-time job lined up just yet, I know that when I do find one, I will be ready for it.
Over the next two weeks, I will enjoy graduation season with my best friends and family. I’m going to have a blast on the senior boat cruise and cheer on the Red Sox during the senior week game. And after all the festivities are over, I’m going to jump headfirst into the next part of my life.
Let’s go, world, I’m ready for you.
-Laura Finaldi is a senior journalism major and the editor-in-chief of the Huntington News.
