Wednesday, April 22, 2009

So where do I go from here?

Lucky for me everything seems to be falling into place: I found a job, I found roommates and an apartment, and when things go as planned, I'm graduating on May 16th. So now what do I do?

It's really weird that I will be staying around Worcester once I graduate. I've loved being here the past 4 years and I have made some great memories but it's really not going to be the same since most of the people I've made those memories with are going to be gone. It will be quite an experience to figure out what to do with my time once I start working.

It has been a long 4 years here but the last couple months have gone by so fast. Each year has brought up a new challenge for me and has made this experience great. Freshman year was the challenge of finally being away from home and needing to make new friends. Lucky for me I had a great group of women on the field hockey team to learn the ropes of WPI from and I had a great group of women on my floor freshman year. By November I was a part of a Greek organization and things just kept getting better. I learned so much about myself and even though adjusting to school was hard in the beginning, by the end of the year I didn't want to go home.

Sophomore year was when I started to take on a lot more responsibilities in my organizations. I held a few positions in my sorority, I was helping out with Relay for Life, and I still had a lot of work to do for my classes. I was living with 20 women which was quite the learning experience (always fun but difficult at times) and I became a pro at time management.

Junior year was quite the ride. This was the time where everyone leaves...if you are a sophomore now you don't quite get it (I thought I did but once junior year rolled around it was much different). My classes were harder, people kept leaving the country to go on IQP, and since I went away D term there were people I didn't see from December until the middle of the summer.

As bad as I just made junior year sound, it was by far the most fun I had. I really was getting involved in my chapter and meeting a lot of great people in Greek Life and then I got to spend a term in Puerto Rico which was amazing! Going away really gave me the chance to live on my own. At the start of the trip I really only knew 1 person going. In those 2 month I made a lot of great friends, went on some really cool trips, and just had an all around great time. As tough as junior year was, I wouldn't change it for anything and sometimes wish I could go back and continue having that much fun...

And well, now its senior year and almost time to pack it up and move. This year has really been a great way to wrap up my WPI experience. MQP finished up well and gave me some good work experience, my organization responsibilities slowly went away as the year came to an end, and I have really enjoyed the time I've spent with friends during the last couple of months. I am still adjusting to the fact that I have 3 more days of classes left and I am trying really hard to not be too scared : )

So where do I go from here? I am still mapping that one out but hopefully I am able to take what WPI has given me, apply it to my job, and eventually give back to the school. This 4 year journey has been quite the ride and I didn't realize it was going by so fast until I finally reached the end. Enjoy your time here and know that there are always people around to give you a hand: whether its someone to talk to if you feel like everyone has a job but you (yes, i was there at one point too), or if you need help figuring out what to do.

Thanks to everyone who has been a part of my WPI experience...it has been a fun one and it's all because of you guys :) Good luck next year and enjoy the last couple of weeks here!

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