Campus Blog: Carpe Diem

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Cortesía de Garcia

Class, work, meetings, bed. Repeat.

My name is Eudora Linde and I am a college senior. I’m trying to pack as much as I can into my senior year before entering the “real world” while still maintaining my grades, being a positive leader with club involvement, holding a job as a waitress and keeping some sort of social life in my final weeks at Shippensburg University.

I’m aware that my time at Ship is dwindling and that some of the opportunities I've had won't come around again -- running my own campaign for student government, holding a leadership position in an academic fraternity, even scheduling classes and looking for housing and roommates. All of these activities have connected me to people who've become dear friends.

I was sitting with one of those close friends recently and talking about what we were both like when we met. I remember that night so clearly -- there’s even a picture of us together. It seems like it was only last weekend and it is hard to imagine my life without this place and these people – my Shippensburg family.

I attended Westtown School, a small Quaker boarding school, for high school. I spent the last two years in a dorm hall with all of my classmates. We grew incredibly close – sharing bedrooms and bathrooms, eating together and being stuck on campus for weekends when we couldn’t go home.

The night before graduation, I remember a friend being upset not only about moving on, but also because by graduating, she felt that she was being told that she couldn’t come “home” anymore. I felt the same way.

I feel that way about Shippensburg. Ship was so different from Westtown that I wasn’t sure how well I would fit. I didn’t think I could ever get as close with my college friends as I did with my high school friends. Today, however, I know better –

So while I’m aware that I only have a few months left at the place that has been home for the past three and a half years, I know that I can’t be sad about it – at least not now. I want to make the most of the time that I have left.

One of my mottos is “carpe diem”, which means “seize the day” in Latin. I say it a lot lately. If I have three papers that are due within 24 hours or countless meetings, I remind myself – there will be a time when I won’t have this, and I’ll miss it. So here’s to all the papers left to write, the spats I’ll have with my roommates over the washing machine, the meetings and the late night waitressing shifts.

Carpe diem – because before I know it, it’ll be over.

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