The one thing certain

Shea Rowell
Class of 2019

(11/2018) Fall is the most beautiful season at Mount St. Mary’s. The mountain greets us with hints of red, orange, brown and gold, accenting the beautiful golden Mary statue that looks down the mountain from the Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes. It is, in my experience, the most challenging time of year academically, and for seniors, a time of great uncertainty and change. A quarter of the year behind us already, we watch the falling leaves, feeling that something good is coming to an end. As I watch my mountain home gradually change into her glorious autumn attire, I reflect on the way she has helped me to grow more appreciative of change in my own life.

The senior class this year is already beginning its inevitable cycle of reminiscence and sentimentality. We laugh with one another, "remember freshman year, when we climbed up to the grotto in three feet of snow? Remember when we stayed awake until 3am laughing and listening to music without a care in the world? Remember when we thought five-page papers were the most difficult task of our semester? Remember?" We look at ourselves now; the ones with 25-page papers to write, job applications to submit, and a bed time that wishes it could always be earlier. We fill our weekends with grocery shopping trips instead of spontaneous escapades. Instead of planning for our next round of classes, we are planning what our lives will be when we can no longer call this place our home: what will we do? Where will we go? Who will be with us along the way?

As I prepare for my first introduction to the professional world, I think of the many ways the Mount has prepared me to begin my career. With the help of the Career Center (where I have worked as a student assistant for four years), I have transformed from a nervous high school student without a clue into an emerging adult who is prepared to launch into the world. I have an eager team of career counselors, professors and mentors to provide advice and support when I need it. More importantly, the Mount has given me a sense of direction. Whether I find a job immediately or struggle in the job search, my Mount professors and classes have taught me that I am not aimless; there is value to human life and human work, and each person has a role to play in society. No matter which career I explore, I know that I will find ways to grow and excel. The seniors at the Mount have been transformed by the skills and experiences we have gained here, and we are ready to apply them more fully to our professional lives.

The Mount has also changed me by improving my ability to interact with others in community. I came to the Mount believing that the best way to live is independently. The surest way to live happily is to mind your own business and try to live a good and honest life. I have changed this opinion radically since I started college; or rather, I have been changed. I now see that the way I had planned to live was too focused on myself, and not enough on my role in serving and being served by the people around me. Independence is attractive from a distance, but it is also isolating. I have learned that while community life and relationships require vulnerability and occasional discomfort, these relationships force you to grow and change for the better. I have learned to truly appreciate the people around me: to rejoice in their gifts, their uniqueness, their virtues. I have learned to share my imperfections with others, and to be grateful for them instead of resentful, as they give me the chance to take ownership of my life and to embrace vulnerability. I have learned that the people with whom I spend my time are far more important than the activities, achievements, or obligations that fill it. I now see it as my duty to accept and give forgiveness, to help others in their need and to allow others to help me. Interdependence, I now know, is a far more fulfilling path to take.

Challenging assignments, experiences and relationships have changed me. The things I learn and explore in my classes shift my perspective on the world, making it more complex each day, and ultimately giving me more questions than answers. The people who have come into my life since I began college have given me more than they will ever know, and the relationships I have had with them have exposed my weaknesses and challenged me to become stronger. The only thing in life that has never changed and never will, is God. Immutable and infinite, God is never less than Goodness itself. While, from a human view, it seems that God comes during the comfortable times in our lives and abandons us in times of grief or struggle, God does not change or transform as we do. He is pure generosity and love, and He sustains us in every moment. The Mount has taught me that God is always there, inviting me to come to Him, loving me, challenging me, showing me my flaws and asking me to change them, showing me my strengths and asking me to use them. He has always been there, and His hand guides the changes I face in every passing year, day, and moment.

While much is uncertain in life, change is constant. Fall will turn to winter and winter to spring. We will meet new people and learn from them. We will experience new things and they will challenge us. We will be forced to change in relationships, in our careers and in our vocations whatever they may be. I thank God for change, because it has brought so many blessings. I thank Him for the falling leaves and the uncertainty that the future brings, confident that He will be there on the other side.

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