Features Co-Editor and Fall 2007 Graduate Katie Young
“but if I….
learned anything at all it was to
always be true to yourself and I
know that this is what I can do and
I’m gonna’ try…”
– Tristan Prettyman
One day, I woke up and realized that the last four years have come and gone and I am an entirely different person. I am a person who knows her faults and likes, and who has gained the ability to accept most of them. In the most unselfish way possible, McDaniel has allowed me to understand that I don’t have the ability to make anyone happy but myself.
All the panicking of presentations, friendships, housing, and hook-ups has somehow been lost in time. Instead the periods in which I was most happy are the only times that I recall. I didn’t really understand the significance of harder times on the Hill until much later. I have realized I have come to a place where I have been able to define mine own happiness and goals.
Advisors, majors, and friends have changed in the past years, but I have elected to surround myself with people who reflect the same choices I have made and also understand their own ability to find happiness within themselves. It’ll take a while, but one day you’ll realize that the times in which you were struggling, or others hurt you, were completely out of your control. No one is the bad person, but just not the right person for you to have in your life. People, like semesters, come and go, and that is perfectly alright.
So take that hurt, anger and pain and turn it around so that you can focus on your own strengths. McDaniel is a place where you can challenge yourself to do new things, speak up, and most importantly be noticed. You will be knocked down by certain events, but you have no control over them. Most importantly always be true to yourself.