Spring Break
Four years of learning for the better, not worse
Lauren Dillard
Issue date: 5/29/09 Section: Forum
I keep thinking about my "lasts." This will be the last time I drive to campus. This will be the last time I go grocery shopping at Fred Meyer in Corvallis. This will be the last time I walk past a cheering crowd at Goss Stadium on my way to work. This will be the last time I get an angry phone call in the Barometer newsroom.
I've come to expect that it will be 10 degrees colder here than in Portland, that winter will last longer each year and that there will be an infestation of some kind in my apartment every spring, be it ants or spiders. Recently, I've been privy to a mild infestation of giant ants. One word: gross.
In my four years, I've complained about apartment complexes, covered stories about students who have passed on and faced my share of controversy.
I'm graduating this spring. I've checked all of the requirements off my list and I'm headed for commencement at Oregon State University. OSU is a place that helped me grow and learn, and it was a place that shook me up and let me find my feet.
I've learned about myself through mistakes and small victories - we all have as the class of 2009: we drank too much and maybe we found our niche that didn't involve drinking (mine was the Barometer.) We struggled through bad majors and academic advisors, and then we started playing a new ball game in a new major or program.
I've learned much in my time at the Barometer. In fact, I've learned enough - through the new media communications program and the Barometer - that will help me while I intern at The Oregonian this summer.
Graduation is exciting. It's a milestone. For some of us, it's a chance to finally go home. For others, it's a benchmark or a step along a path. It's a time to finally take a breather after four (or five, or six) long years of studying, partying and going to the Laundromat.
Some of you are first generation college students (myself included), others are members of a longstanding Beaver tradition.
I've come to expect that it will be 10 degrees colder here than in Portland, that winter will last longer each year and that there will be an infestation of some kind in my apartment every spring, be it ants or spiders. Recently, I've been privy to a mild infestation of giant ants. One word: gross.
In my four years, I've complained about apartment complexes, covered stories about students who have passed on and faced my share of controversy.
I'm graduating this spring. I've checked all of the requirements off my list and I'm headed for commencement at Oregon State University. OSU is a place that helped me grow and learn, and it was a place that shook me up and let me find my feet.
I've learned about myself through mistakes and small victories - we all have as the class of 2009: we drank too much and maybe we found our niche that didn't involve drinking (mine was the Barometer.) We struggled through bad majors and academic advisors, and then we started playing a new ball game in a new major or program.
I've learned much in my time at the Barometer. In fact, I've learned enough - through the new media communications program and the Barometer - that will help me while I intern at The Oregonian this summer.
Graduation is exciting. It's a milestone. For some of us, it's a chance to finally go home. For others, it's a benchmark or a step along a path. It's a time to finally take a breather after four (or five, or six) long years of studying, partying and going to the Laundromat.
Some of you are first generation college students (myself included), others are members of a longstanding Beaver tradition.
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