As this school year comes to an end, I cannot help but spend a lot of my time thinking about next year. My final year. The year I complete my education and head out into the world as a real adult.

While I am somewhat excited at the idea of starting fresh, getting a job and a place to live, it is also causing me a lot of anxiety, as the uncertainty of it all is weighing heavily on my mind. I often feel like I just started college and I am still a freshman, still getting used to the college experience. Having talked to a few seniors about how they feel about graduating, I get the sense that they feel the same way. Looking back on my college experience so far, almost all of it has been, for lack of a better word, tainted by the coronavirus pandemic. I had one and a half semesters of college that could be considered “normal,” and then the world fell apart. Every aspect of our lives changed and RWU has not been the same since.

Sometimes I wonder how my college experience would have been different if COVID-19 had not happened, and I feel somewhat cheated out of a normal year on a college campus. Just as I was finally getting used to being a college student, everything shut down. Oh well. C’est la vie.

I would be lying if I said that my time at RWU has been nothing but disappointment, however. I have made amazing friends and met people I will never forget, and I am very grateful for the experience being on this campus has given me. I realize this sounds like the words of someone who is graduating in a couple weeks even though I have an entire year left, but for some reason it feels like I am already a senior. Some of my friends are seniors, and I will sincerely miss not being around them in the fall.

Considering what I have going on, I think I can safely say that my senior year will be pretty interesting to say the least; I have an internship lined up, a busy class schedule and most notably I will be the new editor-in-chief of the Hawks’ Herald.

When I first joined the Hawks’ Herald freshman year, I never imagined three years later I would be editor-in-chief, and I am extremely grateful for the opportunity given to me, and I am chomping at the bit to get started. We have had some outstanding EICs in the past, and I have been fortunate enough to work alongside them throughout my college career. I can only hope to be a fraction of the leaders/journalists they have become.

To my fellow rising seniors, I know you probably feel the same as I do about entering senior year; anxious, scared and not sure what the future holds for you. All we can do is face it head on and try our senior year as good as it possibly can be. I will see you in the fall and hope you all have a great summer!