Dear Kelly,
I have to say, your freshman year at Longwood was wild. Sprinting from Grainger to Bedford for classes didn’t seem so bad once you were confined to your house due to the Corona Virus. Even though your year at Longwood was cut short, you still enjoyed the time you did spend on campus. Remember all of those late night trips to Farmgrille after practice and movie nights with your friends? Despite the long nights of homework and many presentations and papers, you were having so much fun at Longwood that you rarely wanted to go home! In case you needed a recap, here are some of the highlights.
You tried out for the cheerleading team and made it, congrats! You bonded with your teammates at away games, struggled together at 5am lifts, and had a blast cheering on the Lancers from the sideline! You also joined Lancer Productions and enjoyed setting up and attending events such as Bingo Night and Roller Skating! You also enjoyed learning about and bringing awareness to the Asian culture in the Asian Student Involvement Association (A.S.I.A). Hopefully by now, you have stepped up in at least one of your clubs/ teams and became a leader/ captain. I hope that you have taken the reigns and are leading in a graceful yet authoritative manner.
You also managed to keep your GPA above a 3.5 so congrats on making the Dean’s List! You were especially grateful that the time management skills you learned in high school came in handy! Balancing 17 credits, cheerleading, clubs, friends, and a job is definitely something to be proud of! I hope that you have continued learning and making great strides in your classes. I also hope that you maintained that GPA above a 3.5! Continue to work hard in your classes and before you know it, you’ll be walking across the stage to get your diploma!
With everything you participated in freshman year, sadly you couldn’t do as much community service as you would have liked. You still managed to help out when you could! You had fun tending to the victory garden with friends and helping out with Heartland Horse Heroes with the Honors College. I hope that you are still finding time to give back to the community when you can, whether that’s participating in various drives or volunteering around Farmville. Hopefully now that you have a solid grip on your schedule, you can participate in the Honors Retreat or volunteer at the Alpaca Farm! Giving back to the community is important and you shouldn’t lose sight of that in the midst of everything.
For the grand finale, you had the best time doing everything in the Honors College! You felt so welcomed by all of the Honors staff and classmates during the first few weeks on campus which really helped the transition from high school to college. You were also grateful for the late night study sessions in Stevens and the great people living with you on the fourth floor of Wheeler! I’m so glad you were able to show off your love for the Honors community by signing up for the “welcome wagon” and letting your roommate host a potential student! I hope that you can continue giving back to the Honors community by becoming an Honors Mentor or being more involved with HSA.
All in all, I hope that you remember all the great times you had through the years at Longwood and that you use that to push through those last few weeks of being a Senior! Here’s some advice, make sure you push yourself outside of your comfort zone a little, but don’t stretch yourself too thin! Listen to your intuition! Follow your heart, and have no regrets! Most of all, work hard for what you want, but don’t forget to have fun! Your freshman self is proud of what you have accomplished, and I know that when you graduate you will have everything you need to go off into the real world and do something great!
Sincerely,
Kelly Jarratt