As my four-year journey at Whitewater comes to a close, I reflect on some of my unique experiences here. I remember participating in ULEAD, helping fellow incoming freshmen move into the dorms though I had settled in no more than 3 days prior myself. I remember my first involvement fair, painting Warhawk Drive purple, and hugging every new friend I made along the way. 

This semester has been unlike any others with schedules running almost entirely virtual classes, and physical contact being basically obsolete. But this zoom classroom semester has taught all of us to be creative, focus on our mental space and access internal abilities in a way that we may have never been able to prior to COVID-19. I am eternally grateful for being able to continue to attend school, despite all of the bumps in this semester’s road of uncertainty, and that my professors allowed their empathetic, caring and forgiving selves to be exposed along the way. On top of the chaos that was 2020, I left the country for the first time, amidst a GLOBAL PANDEMIC. I gained knowledge that I will take with me throughout the rest of my life and that is something I would not have experienced had it not been for the coronavirus. Fall semester of 2020 was one that threw everyone for a loop, but one that none of us will forget. 

Leaving UWW, I plan to take a year off to give my mind a break in preparation for Naturopathic Medical School. I hope to study under a Naturopath in the meantime. I am absolutely honored to be the first class of 2021. I hope that anyone who looks on to our graduating class recognizes us as a symbol that they too can achieve growth through not only education, personal experience and perspective, but also by being pushed past their limit of expectations and challenged to think outside of the world as we know it.