Thoughts from a Graduating Senior

Graduation is in about two weeks now.  It is crazy how fast these past four years have gone.  I started off just as a girl from a small town in Aroostook County moving to the “big city.”  It was a bit of a culture shock moving into my first dorm, Cumberland Hall. I was a bit homesick for that first semester, but I started to really like this campus.  I ended up living on campus all four years because I liked it so much. This upcoming year will be the first time I have lived off campus and it will be my first year not at UMaine.  The hardest part of moving on is that you get comfortable somewhere and you have to start all the way over again. I am starting at Husson University in the Fall for their School Counseling Graduate program.  Sure, I will just being going to school in Bangor, but it is still all new. New campus, new classes, new professors. Change is a big part of life, we have to adapt and keep learning.

My word of advice, as a graduating Senior, is to be as involved as you can.  I loved all of the groups that I joined and the people that I met because of those groups.  Shout out to UMaine Alternative Breaks and Phi Sigma Pi Honor Fraternity! I was able to travel, make new friends, and serve others through these organization.  I met once in a lifetime kinds of people and had once in a lifetime experiences. Also do other things than just school, like work a little part-time job, maybe even some place you would have never considered before.  I was told about the work-study position that was open for the Rainbow Resource Center at the end of my Junior year. I had never considered a desk job before because I did not have any experience, but I thought it sounded like a cool opportunity.  I was hired at the end of the year and I have loved working here ever since. Study what you are passionate about and do what you love.

-Abby Thompson (she/her)