From the Editor: Senior reflections come full circle

Starting off as a freshman in college, your life changes completely. You’re diving right into a life filled with new experiences, challenges, excitement and uncertainties awaiting you as soon as you drive past that Rider sign onto campus.

Just as you’re starting to get comfortable, some of these feelings creep right back at you. As you approach senior year — although the packing, saying goodbye to loved ones for the semester and the general college lifestyle gets easier and remains constant ­— there’s still that feeling of uneasiness about the future that gets you thinking as you drive past that Rider sign for your last move-in day as a Bronc.

These feelings of uncertainty make us anxious for our futures to swing into motion, but the path may be hazy on how to get there. Just like being a freshman at orientation, not knowing where to go or exactly what to get involved in, it was unclear at first how to start the next chapter of our lives.

College is such an invigorating time in your life. You’re preparing yourself for the future and breaking out of your shell, so you can do things that you enjoy and wish to pursue.

We looked carefully through that gigantic list of majors and minors and picked what interested us most and what we could see ourselves doing in the near future. At the awareness fair, we gravitated toward the clubs and activities that could help us expand our talents, characters and relationships throughout our college careers.

We get so involved with our classes, extracurriculars and social lives that our last year of college comes before we realize it’s happening. Career fairs, internships and our overall college experiences have helped us grow into the cultured young adults we become going into our senior year.

It is important to take advantage of all the opportunities Rider has to offer from the minute we arrive on campus. Joining clubs, going to career fairs and participating in on-campus events is not only fun to do with friends, but it also builds your character and will benefit you in more ways than one.

It isn’t just about building up your resumé for future job opportunities, but it is truly about the experience and what you take from the sports, clubs and internships you involve yourself in to utilize throughout your career.  Of course, the end result is all about using your education and well-earned degree to get a job after graduation, but these extracurriculars benefit your character and build upon your skillset in the professional world.

According to an alumni survey conducted by Rider’s Career Development and Success office, 93 percent of the undergraduate class of 2016 was either employed, volunteering or pursuing graduate school within one year of graduation. Those are not bad odds to go by.

Just like our high school subjects prepared us for our college course loads, our classroom and hands-on experiences from college developed each year to help us apply those skills in a professional atmosphere.

Starting your journey as a college student is like being a nervous child getting ready to ride on a Ferris wheel for the first time. You start to get nervous about the height of the ride and the rocking of the seat. Once you start the journey up, you’re having fun, laughing with friends as you go around and around. As the ride is about to end, it stops at its highest point and you have a great look at the view surrounding you. The height can be frightening, but that scenery is completely worth the ride.

The uneasiness that we felt freshman year, starting our new journey, that is now coming back to us at the start of senior year is not necessarily a bad feeling but one that is fresh and appealing.

Our college experiences have influenced each of us in different ways. From the on-campus festivities, extracurriculars, classes and internships, college is full of possibilities to carry with us through our lives.

Whether you are a freshman, jumping into the challenging and exciting journey of college, or a senior getting ready to open yourself up to the real world, remember that you are prepared to take on any situation that approaches you. It is how we utilize the skills that we have taken from our experiences here at Rider to use after graduation that counts.

We need to use that uneasy energy in any situation and turn it into confidence and reassurance that we are prepared for what is bound to approach us and to use everything we learned at Rider to help us along the way.

The weekly editorial expresses the majority opinion of The Rider News. This week’s editorial was written by the opinion editor, Hayley Fahey.

Printed in the 9/06/17 issue.