With less than two weeks until graduation, soon-to-be former students reflect on the past four years, and talk about what lies ahead. Their college journey will soon come to a close and hopefully everything they’ve learned will aid them in their next stage of life.

The surreal reality of graduating is one that arrived too soon for many. The time has come when students must enter into the real world college is meant to prepare for. English senior Jaelyn Lynch said the reality hasn’t fully sunk in, but she’s looking forward to and preparing for the next chapter.

“I’m excited. It doesn’t feel real, really,” Lynch said. “It hits me in mini episodes, but it still isn’t really clicking that I’m about to be done with college here. I’m trying to prepare myself for this transition that I’m about to go into, but also, I was trying to make sure I enjoyed myself and was very productive my last semester too. So essentially excited, yet terrified.”

As each graduate paves their own way for their next steps, each are ensuring they prepare to the best of their ability. Allied health senior Jacquline Guerra said networking has been the biggest help as she prepares to move to join a cardiac rhythm management program at UT Health Houston.

“It’s been a very quick process, a very quick turnover,” Guerra said. “A lot of interviews [whether] it’s [for] a job position, or anything like that, just interviews with people within the industry, that has helped me a lot with networking and making those connections. Especially in the industry I’m going into which is essentially medical device sales, networking is huge. So I’m trying to rack up as many connections and contacts that I can, and developing those relationships has really prepared me and opened up doors for me.”

Every senior student has chosen to take a unique path to help them work towards their own goals. Kinesiology senior Anthony James said he wants life after college to consist of fun and further education down the line.

“I’m planning on going to dental school,” James said. “First I’m taking a gap year to go ahead and work and go traveling. After the gap year, I’m applying for dental school next year to enter into the 2024 academic school year.”

For these seniors, there are no regrets for choosing A&M as their college four years ago. This university has prepared them to the best of its ability to help students succeed in their respective path. Lynch said she feels A&M has thoroughly prepared her to continue on her journey of writing and becoming an author.

“This school makes me feel prepared because of the rigor of the coursework,” Lynch said. “Also people who are professors here, especially what I want to do, they actually can give me advice. I feel A&M tries to do things to help us transition into the corporate [world], so I feel this school definitely has prepared me more.”

As seniors prepare to say goodbye to their college lives, they not only reflect on the benefits of their education, but also the meaningful connections and relationships they’ve created. James said he will miss the people that have become most important in his life over the past four years.

“[I’ll miss] the accessibility to my friends and advisors and people who I’ve made relationships with out here,” James said. “Everybody’s from different places. You don’t realize that while you’re at school, but once you leave, I feel like it hits you like, ‘dang,’ we were like all three minutes away from each other and now everybody’s gonna go back home and be cities or states away.”

All of these seniors are leaving with a little more knowledge than they came with, whether it be academically or just general life lessons. As they leave, they have some advice of their own for those still here on this college journey.

“My advice would be to always put your mental health first,” Guerra said. “Don’t let school take over that. Enjoy everything else college has to offer. I see too many times, especially in science or STEM majors, that [students] make a lot of sacrifices and don’t enjoy college like they should. I think there’s a good balance between enjoying other sides of college besides the education aspect. Just have fun and enjoy the experience because it goes by in the blink of an eye and you’re gonna miss those opportunities you didn’t take.”