By Anthony Garcia
January 15, 2014
As I sat and thought about what controversial topic to write about for this column, I couldn’t come up with anything.
I decided to do one of the things I’ve done well all throughout my life.
Procrastinate.
So, I decided to skim through a couple of the Winter Commencement photos we had taken from this year’s ceremony.
I saw even more photos on Facebook from more of my friends of their beautiful graduation ceremony.
Heck, even a couple of days before that, I re-watched last year’s Candle and Rose ceremony just to relive some good memories of some of my closest friends.
It finally hit me that my fellow seniors and I will be participating in our own graduation ceremony in about four months from now.
We will be done with our last final exams, we will exchange our candles with our roses and we will cross that stage and say goodbye to Dominican.
And that scares the hell out of me.
The prospect of having to start a career from scratch, finding a job, looking for my own place to live and essentially being an adult is all so overwhelming and stressful to think about.
Dominican is such a safe place to learn and grow, and from the stories I’ve heard from some of the alumni, the real world is much more harsh and cruel than anything that could happen at DU.
But the memories I have made at Dominican are some of the greatest times of my life.
I remember meeting my TORCH leaders on my first visit to campus, commuting to school from my home in Chicago everyday at 7:30 in the morning and seeing my first story in the Dominican Star.
I remember becoming a Resident Assistant on campus and I remember all the good memories that came with the job. I also remember the late nights and the struggles that came with it too.
The things I remember the most are all the friendships and connections I’ve made during my entire time here.
When I graduated from high school, I couldn’t wait to leave and start a new chapter in my life.
Thinking about graduation in May, though, I only wish the days could be longer so I can enjoy the remaining time I have left here even more. With all of those hesitant feelings aside, I’m still excited for the future.
I look forward to proving the education and the tools I’ve received from DU stack up against any other candidate and more importantly, make my friends, professors and family proud.
Seniors of 2014, let’s finish this semester off strong, take an apple a day to keep that case of senioritis away and make even more memories.