Are you ready to graduate? What are your plans for next year? Have you decided what you want to do once you’re done with college? These are just a few of the never ending questions that I am asked as I prepare to graduate from Xavier in less than three months. 

I never believed anyone that said these past four years would go by in a blink of an eye, but let me tell you, it’s true. I feel like it was just yesterday that I was showing up to my freshmen orientation and taking my seat in the bottom right corner of the Regis-LaSalle Theatre, excited yet absolutely terrified all at once. 

If you know me, I’m a prepared person and like to have just about everything planned out ahead of time; I have three calendars and my agenda is always color-coordinated. I know what I need to do, when I need to do it and try to stay on schedule as much as possible. So, you can imagine that this whole college thing is really throwing me for a loop. 

Don’t get me wrong, I love that my family and friends care so much about my future, but the only thing those questions inflict on me is stress, stress and more stress. It’s hard to come to terms that in less than six months I will be leaving a community that has ultimately shaped me into the person I am today as I begin the next chapter in my life in a completely different place with new people.

However, there are two words that have brought comfort to me and put everything back into perspective: carpe diem. I have clung onto this phrase as a reminder to make the most out of every day amidst all of the applications, scholarships and deadlines that have been piling up my to-do list since the first day of senior year. Believe me, it is so easy to get caught up in stressing about the future and letting your mind dwell on all of the “what-ifs.” At times, I find myself to be so preoccupied with the future that I forget to live in the present. 

With that in mind, I want to address my fellow classmates, the soon to be graduate class of 2020. Seniors, we need to make the most of the time we have left with one another. All too soon we will be walking across the stage in the Ron Thillen Gymnasium in our caps and gowns, collecting our diplomas as our names are announced in Xavier High School one last time. So, seek out those experiences that will leave you with memories to look back on when you find yourself reminiscing about the “good old days.” Personally, I don’t want to look back in 10 years and regret not seizing every opportunity to make memories with the people I love and care about most. (Shoutout to my people, you know who you are! :-)) Trust me, you will find time to write that paper or study for that test, but the time we have with one another is coming to an end, which is a reality we all need to accept. 

As John Keating, played by the late Robin Williams in the film “Dead Poets Society” once said, “Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary.”