The Senior Column.
Joe Meloni, my managing editor and confidant on issues of ice hockey and fine beverages, called me yesterday afternoon to see if I was going to actually write one.
“Sure why not,” I replied.
If you gather one thing from this column before you move on to the Sudoku puzzle on the next page (don’t bother it’s an easy one), I hope it will be the mentality encapsulated in that statement.
Why not try something new, commit yourself to a project or goal which seems completely ludicrous and outside your comfort zone, join a club, quit a club and start a new one opposing the one you just quit, switch majors, switch social groups, study abroad, create a website, eat three calzones from Bruno’s in one night. Do whatever you think you cannot and enjoy it as part of this experience called college.
I never had any intention of writing for a newspaper, running a business or traveling
At no point in my life will I ever have had the freedom and opportunity to experience all the things I have in the past four years. Soon, there will be bills, mortgages, kids and nine to five workdays to anchor me in the mundane of reality. The past four years offered no quantifiable reason not to experience everything I could.
At times, I grew apprehensive about tackling a new challenge or changing the direction I had been heading in. I learned that disappointment is inevitable and that failure can push one forward in the direction of success.
Most of us won’t receive an A in every course, get accepted to every graduate program we apply for or find the perfect job we wanted.
That’s okay. If everything did work out for us, we would never be able to appreciate the feeling of getting an A or receiving that long awaited phone call or letter in the mail. I’ve always believed that students from the
As the flagship campus of the state university system in a region filled with Ivy League colleges and elite institutions, UMass students tend to walk around with a chip on our shoulder.
Ask most students at UMass if they would trade their four years of hard work and perseverance at this University for a trust fund and dormitory at
Most of the columns I wrote for The Collegian were composed with consideration for my audience and who was actually going to sit down and read the 800 words I selected to occupy my corner of the editorial page. I hope that whoever reads this column comes away with some glimpse of initiative to expand their college experience in some way. I’ve been lucky to come across certain people in my life who pushed me to develop that initiative, and in the final words for this paper I would like to thank them.
Mom, Dad, Crystal: Family is indispensable.
Dave and Angela: Not only did your generosity help alleviate the financial burden associated with a college education, it motivated me to make the most of this experience and work as hard as possible to achieve my goals.
George W. Bush: Thank you for assuming the presidency in 2000 and invading
Joe Meloni: Thank you for finding to Bulmers on tap in
Kimberly Hicks, Mark Clinton, Fred Cooksey, Mr. Francesco, Mr. Torrito: I owe you all a great deal of my personal development and academic success. I count you among the best instructors I have had throughout my academic career.
That’s all I have to say. I must depart now, I need to get back to my thesis and the Bruins are on in 20 minutes.
Paul Payer was a Collegian columnist. He can be reached at Stackers watching the Bruins in the playoffs.
