(June
13 , 2002, Gazette)
Remember when?
When
you accepted your degree from the chancellor or vice-chancellor and received
the hood from your dean or director, what were you thinking? That you
couldn’t believe four or five years (six, even) had passed so quickly?
That you couldn’t wait to leave academia and invest your new knowledge
and skills in a practical, rewarding environment? Or even thinking about
the assignment due next week: maybe you are registered for spring semester
courses!
Whatever the future may hold for students, the past several years of undergraduate
studies were hopefully rich in memories and learning experiences. University
should be a positive experience. Stressful at times, yes, and perhaps
even confusing. After all, not everyone knows the path they will choose
when they first enter university. It may take years before you select
the program you feel best suited for and most interested in. As well,
students change disciplines mid-way through their degree. Students should
not be afraid to change a program if, once started, they decide that it
is not for them after all. Your undergraduate years should be something
to look back on with satisfaction and pride, no matter how many stops
and starts you make.
University affects everyone differently. Some people thrive. They bound
energetically into university life and are determined to extract all they
can from the opportunities that await them. Others may enter thinking
pragmatically, perform to the best of their ability and exit several years
later, having successfully completed their studies, and perhaps having
participated in campus activities, perhaps not. Whatever the mix of studies
vs. campus life, it was their choice. And do others graduate wishing they
could have done more? For those students leaving university this past
week, I wonder how many will look back with wistfulness, and how many
will quickly move along, having already relegated their years of university
to the “completed” pile.
I visited the convocation ceremonies on Wednesday, May 29, and spoke to
several BN graduates. While several agreed that their newly-minted degree
was a stepping-stone perhaps on the route to more education, it was a
general consensus that their formative years at the Centre for Nursing
Studies were an unforgettable experience.
“You got to meet a lot of good friends [who] are going to support
you throughout the rest of your life,” said Nicole Lewis, from Paradise.
Wanda Janes, from Conception Bay South, had similar sentiments, stating
that she and her friends have “a lot of good memories over all the
years.”
Both agreed that the training they received at MUN is a very valuable
asset that they will complement with experience.
Indeed, Michelle Quinlan, from Birchy Bay, definitely feels “prepared
to go into the workforce,” stating that while perhaps university
is at first overwhelming, with time students come to truly enjoy the program
they have chosen. Cora Mews, also from Birchy Bay, reiterates that her
years at MUN were most definitely meaningful, and that she will carry
her experiences with her into the future. She echoed the feelings of many
a graduating student when she said convocation was the final coming-together
of a class that has grown and learned together over several years: it
is the final party.
A friend of mine graduating from another discipline shared another kind
of lasting impression from her undergraduate years. Lisa Nash, BA, from
St. John’s, said that she will remember one professor in particular
who helped her as she hesitated with her chosen degree. It was his advice
and encouragement, she said, that “kept [her] on track.” It
seemed to me that everyone was quite rightly content with his/her undergraduate
experience.
Personally, those four years flew by. And I did my best to enrich the
academic experience with as many activities as practical. I even braved
my sky-high level of stage fright and tried out for the Festival Choir,
a play by the fourth- year drama students, and a musical. Was it a coincidence
that this all occurred during my first two years of my degree? Or was
I simply more willing to take chances (read: more willing to embarrass
myself) as I was still settling in to the university atmosphere? (For
the record, I was accepted in and thoroughly enjoyed singing in the Festival
Choir, got called back for the play but couldn’t make it to the re-audition,
and never heard back from the musical! Ah well, one-and-a-half out of
three ain’t bad.)
When I graduated in May 2001 I already knew I would be returning as a
part-time student, whether it was via a Web course while I was living
in France, or to take spring semester courses this year to finish several
things I simply couldn’t fit in beforehand. In that respect, my undergraduate
experience is not quite finished. I haven’t gone back to relive the
past four years however; I’m focused firmly on the future and working
on material I will be able to call upon for future plans.
So will your convocation picture look different from your high school
graduation portrait? Will the knowledge and life-wisdom you have amassed
over these past years emanate from your gaze? As you pose confidently
for the photographer, smile proudly and think to yourself, congratulations.
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