It’s been over a month since I blogged and in that month I have finished out my tenure as the Business Manager of The Miami Hurricane, dragged myself through my final exams, furnished and cleaned my apartment so I could fool my visiting family into thinking I actually spend time there, and, oh yeah, I got this snazzy green and orange tassel which makes me a college graduate. Well I guess the diploma that still hasn’t arrived in the mail makes it official, but that tassel is what I have on my nightstand right now so it’s what I’m going with.
I must admit that this is the first time in two weeks that I’ve felt comfortable with the idea of declaring my status as an official grad to the cyber world. A milestone I thought would easily come and go with a little family hoopla ended up turning into something more significant. Instead of just being the next step in my five-year plan it has been a time for self-reflection and evaluation. Where exactly have I been over the last four years?
My time at the University of Miami introduced me to people from all over the world with unique experiences and passions. I’ve shared an apartment with a part Jamaican, part Chinese chick who was the first person to make me realize how lucky I was to attend such an amazing (and pricey) institution like UM and to take no nonsense from those Jersey girls. I’ve served as a source of culture shock for plenty of my friends who ride comfortably in their Mercedes while I cruise in my newly acquired 1995 Honda Civic who I named Betsy Lou. My professors have served as both the pinnacles of professional wisdom and out-dated-ness, sometimes encapsulating one or both of those titles at the same time. I have learned that a person can survive on a lot less sleep than they thought they could for a lot longer than they thought possible.
Most of all I have learned how to stick with something that was wonderful, terrible, hard, easy, and ultimately worth it for four years. That’s not a badge of honor that everyone earns.
How well will my Bachelor of Communication degree serve me in the future? Who knows. But the process taught me how to earn something, fight to keep it, and add to its value by seeking opportunities in the classroom of life whether that was by taking on second and third jobs or finding time to read a New York Times article in the middle of some of Faulkner and Shakespeare’s greatest works.
As for the immediate future, I will be starting full-time with (add)ventures as the specialist, strategy/social media in the Miami office. I’m looking forward to the next steps of this crazy journey and hoping the tassel on my nightstand will help me overcome the hurdles and appreciate the successes of the next four years.