A month ago, I covered my last sporting event for The Daily Tar Heel. A few weeks ago, I watched my last UNC basketball game as a UNC student. Yesterday, I played in my last water polo game while wearing a UNC cap.
Now, I write my last piece for the DTH.
I’ve barely blinked and a four year journey is in its waning moments. Luckily, I’ve learned some lessons along the way, but the one that sticks out most in my mind is one I learned in my first week freshman year of high school.
A friend’s older sister — the valedictorian of the senior class — gave a speech to us wide-eyed, overly-cocky 15-year-olds: Try everything you have even the slightest inkling of interest in, she said.
Listening to that advice is how I ended up writing for the school newspaper, which led me to the DTH, and, job-willing, a future career. It led me to say yes when a friend asked if I wanted to help start a water polo team at a high school without a pool. Eight years later, writing for the paper (and getting called a Coach K shoe scrubber for it) and wearing a blue Speedo with the interlocking “NC” on the rear have defined my North Carolina career.
By senior year, every person at this school will have a few lasts they’re dreading, whether it’s the last time watching a freshman argue with the Pit Preacher, the last pickup basketball game or the last time linking arms after a game, win or lose, and singing the alma mater.
For everyone leaving here in May, try your best to cherish those lasts. But for those of you lucky enough to be coming back to Chapel Hill in the fall, I plead with you: Go out and have as many firsts as you possibly can.
There are very few places or times in your life that provide so many opportunities to branch out, and there are very few times you will try something new and regret it completely. Best-case scenario, you find something you love; worst-case scenario, you walk away with a story. No matter what, you learn something new about yourself.
I’m going to miss UNC a lot. I’ll miss the DTH and water polo, the late nights at the library and the less productive late nights at The Library. I’ll even miss the classes.
