Asbury is a wonderful place. At this school, I have discovered what I want to do for the rest of my life, received unbeatable experience in my field and, most of all, I have met some of my greatest friends. I firmly believe that there is no other place I would have rather spent my college years. I truly love it here. Yet, I am ready to leave. You should be too.
As I’m reaching the halfway point of my senior year, I have done a lot of thinking about what I would do differently if I restarted college. Luckily, I don’t think there is much I would change. However, I think one thing I would like to have prepared myself for earlier is leaving school. Whether you like it or not, you are not going to be at Asbury forever. At some point, all of us are going to leave this place for the last time as students.
I made the mistake of holding on to my Asbury years a little too tightly for a little too long. Last semester, I started to have uncontrollable anxiety about what was going to happen when I left. Where would I go? What would I do? Each break from school, I counted the days until I was back with my friends, hanging out in the Student Center. As my junior year started, my breaks were still spent counting the days until I was at school, but my time here was no longer enjoyable. Instead of enjoying my time with friends, or diving into my jobs (of which I had too many), I was constantly worrying about what was going to happen when I inevitably left.
I made my entire life about Asbury. It was in no way a mistake to love Asbury. It was wrong, however, to ignore the fact that Asbury is only a four-year chapter in the book that is my life as a whole.
I know for a fact that I will always look back on my time at Asbury very fondly. The thing is, I will be looking back. I will not be continuing to enjoy my time here. As hard as it is to admit, one year from now, I will be an Asbury alumnus. Four years from now, most of the students at Asbury currently will have graduated from here or another school. We all move on — it’s a natural part of life.
What I don’t want you to get from reading this is that you need to treat Asbury like it is simply a passing phase. In fact, I encourage you to do the opposite. Dive in, get involved, make friends, make memories and figure out who you are. That is what your time here is for.
At the same time, enjoy your time off. Keep in touch with people at home. One of my biggest regrets is that, outside of my family, I have almost no connections left at home because I only focused on my school friends. I would even go as far as saying that it is important to keep connections with people who are not Asbury students. That keeps you in touch with the outside world and, if necessary, gives you someone to talk to when you might need that small break from life here.
Use your time off to prepare for life outside of college. The end of your time here is quickly approaching. I wouldn’t want you to face the same amount of anxiety-induced fear of the future that I did because I neglected to face the reality of life post-grad.
To the underclassmen: You have time. Be busy. Do not be afraid to love your time here. Here is my advice, though. Do not love it so much that you tell yourself you could not love anything else in life as much as your Asbury years. It is not realistic and, speaking from experience, not healthy for your mental state.
To the juniors: Love your time here. I know you’re busy, but try to slow down enough to realize that your time here is something special.
To my fellow seniors: We made it. That is something worth celebrating. In a little more than six months, we will be graduating (that felt weird to write). Though it is scary, look forward to what is to come next. If it is anything like our time at Asbury, I am excited to experience it.
