Last Words

By Binghamton University May 2023 Graduating Undergraduates

Hubert Zhou

- Integrative Neuroscience Major

Dreams: I hope to become a healthcare administrator and provide more affordable and accessible healthcare to those who need it. I really want to especially make a positive impact on mental health across the country. I believe people need access to mental health resources which aren’t so readily available right now. I also just hope to live my life happily surrounded by people I care about who care about me too.

A Forever Memory: My Asian Night as Presisdent of the Asian Student Union (ASU) when my E-board made me a plaque.

The accomplishment you’re most proud of: Creating a closer board of directors as ASU President and honestly just being president

What’s Next? Cornell MHA for grad school!

Last Words: I love the ASU community fr; I wouldn’t miss Bing without it.

Alura Tom

- Psychology Major, Education Minor

Dreams: Live happy and healthy with my 200 horses on a farm.

What’s Next? Grad school!

Advice to underclassmen: Have fun!

George Lee

- Financial Economics Major

Dreams: Money.

A Forever Memory: Sleeping in the ASU room.

What’s Next? Job.

Advice to underclassmen: Pick something easy.

As we say goodbye or see you later, I wanted to collect some messages from our wonderful community. The Asian student community here at Binghamton University has played a role in all of our lives — it is one thing we all share. A few graduating members were gracious enough to share some advice and memories from over the years. Thank you for taking the time to let us be us the past four years. We look forward to seeing all the underclassmen find their paths and all the seniors grow in the real world.

Kathryn Kwon

English Literature Major, Human Rights Minor

Dreams: In terms of my career, I want to enact or inspire change. Whether that be through human rights law, public service or investigative journalism, I want to help people even if it wears me down. Beyond that and in a more simple light, I want to rest without anxiety gnawing at me. I want to melt into my sheets and fall into sleep without what I assume is the weight of the world crushing me. I want peace and healing. Someday in the future, I can see myself sit ting on a rocking chair (maybe in North Carolina) with a dog in my lap, listening to soft music as I let nature push and pull at my skin. That would be the dream — ease.

A Forever Memory: Honestly, all the memories that [have] stuck with me over the years are bad ones — times when I sat on the edge of everything and nothing, when the world felt like impending doom, when things were shallow and sharp. But I hope one day when I look back at my time here, sunshine slips through the curtains and reminds me of a happier experience than I can recall now.

What’s Next? Reflection and travel.

Last Words: Don’t regret not acting sooner.

Chasing an image of yourself and reaching it only to look back and realize you were fine before is one of the worst feelings ever. Be gentle with yourself.

Your life in college is neither the beginning nor the end of your world.

Everything in moderation.

Jina Wu

- Linguistics Major, Speech and Hearing Sciences Minor

Dreams: I hope to become a speech-language pathologist working in schools around the world or country. In the end, I hope to travel around the world, either solo or with a companion.

What’s Next? Grad school.

Advice to underclassmen: Do not pressure yourself into choosing a major too early. I know it may seem like everyone around you has everything figured out, but try to take different classes to see what you enjoy.

- Social Work Major, Spanish Minor

Dreams: My dreams are to have a lot of dogs and travel a lot.

What’s Next? Grad school and then getting my social work license. Then, maybe working in an aquarium.

Last Words: I appreciate all the love and support that I have received throughout my college years, and I hope to continue to grow and reciprocate that love.

Advice to underclassmen: Just be yourself. It really does not matter what anyone else thinks of you, so do what makes you happy.

By Kathryn Kwon

My nights are often plagued by nightmares (An unfortunate product of the environment I was raised in).

Dark circles and exhaustion settles into fine lines. Sleep was a predicament; A battle between giving up — giving in To tendrils of temptation And fighting to stay awake — prolonging What is inevitable.

I dream of the world ending nightly. Against my will, I am drawn into apocalypse. What should have been peaceful rest is fear raising.

Soft fields of flowers turn into Asphodel. Infernal landscape, fiery hell. Pits of fire that drag me in — down. Chained legs and tethered wrists.

I am not my own, no longer. I am victim to, sacrificial. I have succumbed to my mind, hostage.