I am officially a few weeks away from graduating and the statement “It takes a village” couldn’t be any truer. It took a great support system to make it this far despite the odds. I owe the person I am to hundreds of people who one way or another inspired me, supported me, encouraged me, called me, held me, loved me, prayed for me, walked with me, laughed with me, cried with me, partied with me, travelled with me, and really were there at any point during these past four years. And if you ever did any of these between 2014 and now: THANK YOU! I APPRECIATE YOU!

Maxwell Diawuoh once said,

And one day, you’ll be in a better place. Your thoughts won’t be so loud, breathing won’t feel like a really complicated gym workout, and the idea of actually living life will make sense.

I can’t think of a semester where I didn’t feel like dropping everything and just go back home. This last one wasn’t any different; I was so not having it. Sitting in classes and not understanding what in the world my professors were talking about had me rethink this whole “senior situation”. Mechanical Engineering might have its challenges, adding English as a fourth language doesn’t help the situation, living abroad by myself isn’t ideal, balancing school and work is insane, not knowing what a “bearing” looks like and other common terms that come up in classes feels terrible, and that’s not even half of the situation. There are probably  thousands of other college students in a much worse situation but speaking for myself: It was A Lot.

Now that I think of how I coped with everything I realize how insane it was (still is). On many days I would take breaks between classes and go back to my dorm to “gather myself”.  I would nap for 10 minutes, give myself a pep talk,  or just cry (whatever helps right? 😊). Other days I would wake up but not get out of bed and just miss class. Not that any of these were the right thing to do, it was simply all I could do in that moment. I had to choose between showing up and feel even more stupid or out of place than I did prior or simply skip and use food to process all that.

Some of us don’t get it the first time around and there’s nothing wrong with that. Sometimes we just have to pat ourselves on the back and say to ourselves “ you know what, you did what you could and what you couldn’t, you tried. Let’s try again tomorrow.”

In the end, if there’s one thing I will be taking away from all this when I walk on  that stage is this:

…TRY AGAIN LATER…

It doesn’t matter what it is that seems to not be working out, as long as you still want or need it:

…TRY AGAIN LATER…

Please don’t give up on yourself, the world is already full of people who will.

…TRY AGAIN LATER…

Love Always,

WWA