Senior Column: It’s Cool to Care

Rachel Reiniger Former Digital Editor

College teaches you a lot. Everyone knows the cliches: self-discovery, independence, career opportunities, the list goes on. But the lesson that truly changed my college experience is not as widely talked about: the best thing you can do in life is care more.

We start out life knowing this and somehow lose it along the way. In elementary school, the harder you tried, the more you were rewarded. You add more stickers to your classmates’ Valentines, sign longer notes in the back of your neighbor’s yearbook and make your best friend a matching friendship bracelet.

Middle school slowly introduces the concept of perception. Cliques ran rampant and cattiness followed suit. Suddenly you enter high school learning it is no longer cool to care.

Then college comes, and you’re told, “Put yourself out there!” “Say yes to everything!” and “Leave your door open and chat with anyone that passes by!”

I quickly learned freshman year would be much easier if I had been thrown in as a fi rst grader. No guards up, wearing my heart on my sleeve, probably in a sequin High School Musical t-shirt.

Instead, I, like many others, let the stress of being perceived as “too much” hold me back freshman and sophomore year. I was too scared to ask the same person to dinner two nights in a row or send a text afterwards saying how much fun I had.

There comes a point in college when you realize it may not be about

Continued on p. 10

Villanova Program at SCI Phoenix Prison p. 3

The Villanovan’s Year in Review Spread p. 12-13