For those of us who are graduating in two weeks, the days seem filled with ambiguity. There are those who look forward to commencement with anticipation, secure in a future they've earned and cannot wait to gain access to. For others who are just now coming to the realization that a political science degree doesn't guarantee them the seven-figure salary coming out of college they were hoping for, time can not move slowly enough. Some still get teary eyed each time they hear \Varsity"" at any given sporting event, and others just want to curl up in a ball and pull their hair out when the band strikes up ""If You Want To Be a Badger.""
And yet, often those two seemingly contrasting feelings are both present in the same person. Sometimes seniors don't know how to feel: anxious, passive, opportunistic, any word could fill this space. That is because graduation is both a beginning and an end. It is the end of what has been for many of us a great run of four years (or more) at a top university in a first-rate city. No longer is attendance in lecture a standard to which one is only held marginally accountable, nor can hangovers be worn like a badge of pride on Friday morning. Instead, reality takes the place of that surreal existence. Deadlines begin to mean more than they ever did when the paper you started at midnight gets finished just in time to turn in at 8 a.m. the next day, as your well being largely depends on you getting your act together.
Sure, some of us will delay the inevitable and put off the real world for a few more years in graduate school should we be so lucky. Yet that experience will never be on the same level as undergraduate years. There is, after all, a reason why the ""My son's a lawyer/doctor"" routine your parents engage in at family gatherings means something; it takes hard work and dedication.
Others will find a more definitive end to their education in the coming weeks. Some have jobs with prestigious firms already lined up, some are glad the Open Pantry is hiring a new third shift clerk. Either way, the prospect of the real world looms large and probably frightening.
As a result, graduation is never so simple as the graduation announcements or cap and gown rental would suggest it is. It is undoubtedly an event of mixed and conflicted emotions, a place where joy occupies the same space as grief. In the end, however, the realization has to be this: While your UW education may come to an end soon, it is only a mark of progress, not an end point in the life-long activity of learning. You might find that your degree in human resources amounts to a fart in the wind when you begin to interact with co-workers who've been doing your job longer than you've been alive.
If you ever feel secure in your purely academic intellect, take a stroll through the stacks of Memorial Library. The sheer volume of knowledge there makes anyone feel overwhelmed.
Yet there should be a very valid sense of accomplishment. There is no question that a college degree might not mean what it used to, but that's not to say it doesn't represent something very meaningful. Not in the sense that a piece of paper can represent a four year experience; to think that would suggest your education is nothing more than a G.P.A. and major. No, education is more of a holistic process, one that is the end result whether we intend it to be or not.
Regardless of their intentions, both the pure academic who stays home on a Saturday night to play Dungeons and Dragons in his dorm room and the party hearty frat boy stand to learn something. There are as many non-vocational, non-academic skills that every graduate encounters during their years of college that will undoubtedly remain useful for the rest of their lives. In fact, the social skills and depth of personal knowledge that one learns about themselves are just as important as a degree ever could be. In the end, all that matters is that we cherish what we can't have anymore, and that we don't let a cynical and conflicted world dictate who we are. No matter what, remember: It is always easier to be critical than to be creative, so don't take the easy way out.
Bob Probst is a senior majoring in political science, legal studies and integrated liberal studies.
