BY MARY SCOTT DOUGLAS
A Student’s Hopes for Her Senior Year This past winter break, I rediscovered one of my favorite childhood board games: Clue. As everyone knows, Clue is a game of discovery, the goal being to find out the details of a crime (who’s guilty, the weapon, and where it happened). 16
When starting Clue, each player is given a few hints but nobody really knows anything. Throughout the game, each player goes through a process of pursuing possibilities, forming and altering opinions, and sometimes abruptly changing directions on the board to hasten towards another goal — until, at the very end, the winner arrives at the correct solution. While Clue is a simple board game and college is a gigantic feat, they have similarities. As I’ve come to realize, college is a process of selfdiscovery, with plenty of twists and turns along the way. Looking back at my first few years of college, I can
see that the experience wasn’t at all what I expected it to be. However, my hopes for my senior year in 2021–22 feel much more accurate to my true self compared to the expectations I carried with me when I started. If you asked 18-year-old me what I thought my senior year of college would look like, here’s what I would have said: I’ll be a successful chemistry student, preparing to work in a lab after college. I’ll have a leadership role in a sorority, helping continue the strong legacy of sisterhood. Finally, I’ll be involved socially, filling every free hour with campus activities and events.
Spring 2021
