Avery Chalk

The Villanovan Office, located inside Corr Hall.

While scrolling through TikTok the other night, I saw this quote from Sylvia Plath and was stopped in my endless scrolling tracks. As a senior preparing for the next exciting, yet scary, chapter of my life, I have been preparing myself for the hurt of post-grad. For the hurt of not living with or being a few minutes away from my best friends. For the hurt of not being able to grab lunch or see my friends from the newspaper every day. For the hurt of not being able to skip class for a darty on a nice spring day. In so many ways, my life will never look the same.

I faced this same predicament, as I’m sure many of us did, entering my freshman year here at Villanova. Being a freshman during COVID and never having lived outside of my hometown, I had no idea what to expect. I spent those first months of freshman year outside of my body. I tried to put myself out there and surround myself with friends, but no part of it felt right. I was being eaten inside out by the nostalgia of my past, desperate to flip the script and go back to high school. I looked in the mirror hoping to see the 17-year-old girl I once recognized and failed to understand my new 19-year-old self. 

As I entered sophomore year, I found myself desperate to move past these growing pains. What I quickly learned is that you get what you give. I was so petrified to be seen trying, whether I was trying to make friends, trying to find a club to join or trying to do well in my classes. But, without trying, college can be a scary place. 

Join that club, and, if you hate it, quit that club. Join another club. Talk to the girl sitting next to you in your first sorority chapter meeting. Go to office hours. Apply for that leadership position. Pour into your friends, and they will pour back into you. When you inevitably “fail,” accept the challenge. 

These four years of college are too short to wait for ourselves. Every piece of pain and sadness won’t be solved overnight, but it can be eased by the laughter of a new friend or the guidance of a great professor. 

For me, I found it in the basement of Corr Hall. From late nights gabbing with my co-editors in the office to end-of-semester dinners to people who became friends, not just co-workers, no words can express just how much The Villanovan changed my college career. If it wasn’t for a shot in the dark application in the middle of the semester, I truly don’t know who or where I would be. 

For those who get the privilege to return to Villanova next year, you still have time. Put aside those fears of judgment and stress of not fitting in. You have an amazing community surrounding you that is ready to pick you up whenever you fall, you just have to search for it. 

For the Class of 2024, it is going to hurt. We are going to miss the days of eating lunch by the Oreo and attending basketball games in the Finn. At some points, these growing pains may feel excruciating, but there is a place for us outside of 800 E. Lancaster Ave. We are going to grow, and we are going to try.