Over these last four years I’ve come to realize that going through college is a lot like putting together a quilt. You have to make something out of all these little pieces of fabric — out of all the pieces of you.
Sometimes it takes a while to know where you want certain pieces to go — or if you even want to use them. I grew up always writing in journals. Short stories, notes, poems — you name it. I knew I loved writing, but I let other people in high school convince me there was no career in it. So when I came to Texas A&M four years ago, I came in as a biology major. I put the piece of me that has “loves to write” on it away, and told myself I wouldn’t use it.
Without that part of myself, however, I didn’t feel complete. Despite getting involved in several amazing organizations at A&M, I didn’t enjoy my classes, and I struggled with being away from home for the first time. Because of that, I didn’t really enjoy my freshman year.
 When my grandfather died in spring of that year, I heard life changing words at his eulogy. My mother said he had missed his life’s calling to teach. It was at that moment I realized that I was meant to use the piece that has “loves to write” on it.
A change of major, three years at The Battalion, two internships with Fox News in New York City and a slotted internship with San Antonio Express-News later, that piece of me is now a very important part of my quilt.
Through the tools available at A&M, I have picked up and thrown away other pieces for that quilt these last four years. Skills, mentors, knowledge, friendships, good experiences and bad ones all laid out together make a “me” I feel like I know and am happy with.
To those Aggies who are not yet graduating, now is the time to put together the pieces that will make you who you are. My biggest piece of advice I want to leave behind would be that you can’t listen to the people in your life who are telling you who to be. Only you can figure that out. College is the time to edit your life, to move the pieces around before you sew them together — after which point moving them around becomes a little more complicated. And A&M is an amazing place filled with so many opportunities to make your quilt exactly how you want it.
As my classmates and I prepare to walk the stage in five days time, it has come time for us to finalize our quilts. To go out into the world and be all of the pieces of ourselves that we put together these last four years at Texas A&M. But as different as each of our quilts may be, there is one thing that is certain: we all have a maroon border around the edge.
Lindsey Gawlik is a telecommunication senior and managing editor for The Battalion.