Dear Senior Self,

Hi there, it’s you, at the end of your freshman year. You’ve had a whirlwind of a freshman year, from gaining 30+ new sisters, being elected for a position on SPED ambassadors, meeting one of your best college friends, and even getting a job on campus that isn’t dhall. You’ve also faced a lot of adversity this year, from a not-so-great roommate situation (which did end up working out for the best- thanks Jada) and your grandma passing away. Your grades may have suffered a bit first semester, and you worried constantly if you’d ever get your academic career back on track and get through the year without being put on probation in honors. Guess what? (even though you already know how this story ends) You kicked second semester’s butt with a 3.5 and an overall GPA of a 3.36.

The reason I list these things is that I want you to remember these feelings as I’m sure you have forgotten by now what you felt like at this very time. You’re happy, a true happiness that has come from all of the things you have accomplished. Before this second semester, you cried many tears, and you considered even not returning to Longwood and just staying home to finish out your first year at Paul D. You took grimmal’s death hard, she was one of your biggest supporters. You wondered what it’d be like without her late night texts about how well you were doing in school, or just random texts about life, the universe, and everything. Honestly, I’m so proud of you for getting through your first semester at Longwood and having such an amazing second semester. You definitely overcame adversity and put yourself out there. You joined an amazing sisterhood and gained so many important people in your life. You spent a lot of nights about town, making Cookout runs or taking Sydney laps while singing “Sweet Home Alabama” at the top of your lungs like nothing could touch you. You joined new clubs, and you got more involved (as much as you could at least with ones that you began to neglect during the hard times. Though you weren’t as involved with Honors this year as some of your classmates, I hope you realize the importance of this involvement. Thanks to honors, you met some of your absolute best friends, and you were given more opportunities to branch out into the Longwood Community. Hopefully, as you’re reading this, you’re still just as involved in SPED Ambassadors, and maybe you’re more involved in Bare Naked Ladies and I seriously hope you’re more involved in the Honors Community, because gosh those are the best people you’ve met at this point in your life. (I’m looking at you, Sarah, Hannah, Jamie, and all of my other honors pals).

So, I guess I should connect this section a little more to the Honors pillars: scholarship, community, and service.

As touched on a bit before, your first year brought many ups and just as many downs academically. While your first semester was definitely an adjustment, especially with all of the obstacles, I still am proud of how well you did for what you were going through. While yes, your GPA always could be better than what you have, I’m proud of you for recognizing that perfection is not the most important thing. Instead, I hope you realize that the most you can do is strive for greatness, and if it doesn’t come automatically; well, then maybe it just wasn’t meant to be in the first place, or maybe you just need to pick yourself up by the bootstraps and try again. I hope your grades have improved as your classes have gotten more specific to Special Education. Gosh, I hope you still are just as fascinated by your major, and I hope you haven’t lost your spark for education. I hope you are looking at this and feeling as though somehow you have made your past self so incredibly proud, and if you aren’t, then maybe just try a little harder next time (I’m not mad).

When it comes to community, I am so thankful for the community honors has brought me. IN the first few weeks, I found my forever friends, and I hope they are still around with you. I hope you still care as much about the first few week friends as you do right now. In a kind of convoluted way, I’m thankful that honors have brought you friends even outside of honors. I’m glad that honors helped you get into Sigma Kappa, and I’m so thankful for the community that was brought into my life through the sisterhood. I hope that community is still just as important in your life as senior as it is to your nineteen-year-old, about to be a sophomore self. I hope you never forget all of the new, amazing, wonderful people that were brought into your life this year. I hope you treasure them, they will be there for you when you need them, so let them be there for you.

On the subject of service, I gotta say that I was lacking in my commitment to service through honors this year. In the midst of all of the craziness, I somehow forgot that service is one of the most important parts of being a part of the honors community. I hope so much that you have realized how important service through honors is. While you volunteered a lot with other organizations, you took Honors volunteer opportunities for granted, and I hope you did not do that these next three years. I hope you are more involved, and I hope you are one of the most involved. That I will hold you to, and be disappointed if you did not do this for your freshman self. Remember service is the most important thing in life, provide to the Farmville and Longwood community, they are so important to who you are as a person and as a citizen leader.

To my senior self, I hope you take this all in and remember with nostalgia how it feels to be sitting here in your bedroom at home, working on this honors blog only a few days before its due (Sorry Jessi!)(Ps, please tell me you got better at not procrastinating so much lol.), listening to the country music radio on music choice, and texting your friends all about random things that you won’t remember this time four years from now. I hope these years at Longwood are remembered fondly, and I hope you are making your grimmal proud. But most of all, I hope you still feel a sense of immense happiness with your life.

Your past self,

Devin

May 26, 2018