BYE, BYE, BYE

Opinion

The Penn’s message to graduates (iup.edu) IUP seniors were expected to graduate this weekend.

To IUP’s graduating students,

I offer you an early congratulations as you finish up the last of your finals this week. This semester has not been an easy one, and I know online classes and Zoom meetups were not how you wanted to spend the last of your time at IUP.

We were all looking forward to saying goodbye to all our friends and professors. Savoring the last bit of time we had in our college apartments. Spending one last weekend hitting the Philly Street bars. And coming out of class one more time to the rare warm, sunny Indiana day and getting to spend the rest of it sitting with our friends on someone’s porch, soaking in the sunshine.

You may not want to admit it, but you’re going to miss Indiana. We all are.

I started my four years at IUP in fall 2016. I knew college was supposed to prepare you for the real world, but I wasn’t prepared for three days off of classes while professors and supporters lined IUP’s campus – along with every other Pennsylvania state school – with picket signs during the APSCUF strike. It was an unexpected start to the college experience, so I’m not surprised that our college experience had an even wilder ending.

We will get through this next roadblock of graduating into an economy recovering from a global pandemic.

Regardless of every obstacle put in your paths these past few years, you officially made it to the end. You made it past the exams, long study sessions, group assignments, thesis papers and general stress of juggling school while trying to become a semi-functioning adult.

Now, you can say you graduated. You should feel proud about the work you’ve accomplished here at IUP. Make sure you take some time this weekend, even if your department doesn’t have some kind of virtual ceremony, and celebrate your accomplishments.

You’ll have plenty of time to worry about finding a job later. You aren’t alone in that respect. Few people will have jobs lined up after graduation. We’re entering into the job market at a terrible time, but such is life.

Now is the time to celebrate the simple fact that you have graduated. No other person has had to overcome what you’ve had to in order to get to where you are.

Maybe it only took you three years to graduate. Maybe you’ve been working on it on and off for the past decade. Either way, no one else has had your college experience from start to finish.

It wasn’t easy. But you did it.

Stay kind to yourself throughout these next few weeks or months of figuring out what’s next. It will get better.

For now, celebrate, and stay safe.

Brought to you By Katie Mest