RIP to tequila shots before a particularly horrible afternoon class being the norm.
Why is it that time just seems to fly by faster and faster as you get older, regardless of whether you’re having fun or not? With the first anniversary of my graduation from Washington State University just around the corner, my time as a “real adult” has been an unpredictable tossup of a lot of fun, and a bit of not so much fun.
Being a fresh college graduate is being in a constant state of confusion, crisis, and overall mixed emotions, but I’ve been met with many opportunities to connect with my alma mater in deeper and more meaningful ways than I felt I did while I was a student, which may or may not be a hot take. Today, I’m here to share my experience with how being a WSU alum is *almost*, strong emphasis on *ALMOST*, better than being a student.
First of all, let me just establish that job hunting sucks. Apartment hunting sucks. Living in your hometown post-college can suck, depending on your circumstances. Paying bills sucks. Working 40 hours (or more) a week sucks. Being separated from the soulmates you found at college sucks. Everything is wildly expensive, and I yearn for the times when my biggest budget questions were if I should get a new dress for sorority formal, and if I have enough money in my checking for another raspberry vodka Red Bull at Valhalla.
But! These obvious cons aside, there have been a lot of beautiful things about being an alum that helped deepen my love for WSU from a ridiculous amount to a straight up insane amount over the past year.
1. The Alumni Love
There’s nothing better for getting through a weird time than commiserating with people who have been through exactly what you’ve been through. Plus, we all know Cougs love helping Cougs. Seeing just how far the Coug network can propel you forward in your personal life, career, and more has left me awestruck of this community, and incredibly proud of the fact that nobody except us will really know how special it is.
2. Visiting Pullman with Little to No Responsibilities
This is one of the best parts to me about being an alum this past year: Enjoying the many fruits of Pullman on any given weekend without an unfinished essay hanging over your head, or a hopeless group project that you know you’re going to end up doing 80% of.
The actual school part of college will never be missed, and sometimes I think about the absolute silliness of the fact that I was a 22 year old woman signing an attendance sheet and being told I had to sit wherever the professor assigned me to. Like, for what?
3. Older and Wiser
I also, unfortunately, attribute some of the beauty of being an alum to the age-old saying “You never know what you have until it’s gone”— Even though while I was a student I was VERY cognizant of how precious that time was, and I made it a priority each and every day to not take that time for granted.
Every time I headed to my best friend’s house on B Street to hike up to the Coug and enjoy pitcher drinks on the terrace on a Wednesday at 3:00pm just because it’s sunny outside in March and why the hell not, I thought to myself: this is perfect. This is precious, and simply perfect, and at no other time in my life will things ever be like this again.
But, time always finds a way to sneak up on us, and after the fact it’s hard not to feel like there’s still something you could’ve appreciated more, or a missed opportunity you could’ve said “yes” to.
Every time I have the chance to chat with a current student these days, I will always tell them the same thing— You don’t even know how lucky you are right now. You don’t even know, even if you THINK you know, how once in a lifetime these days are that you’re living, being right at the beginning of your lifelong membership in a strong, beautiful community.
This realization is something that makes being an alum so wonderful and sweet; being able to see the full picture of those memories that I’ll carry in my heart for the decades to come. Nothing compares to those moments.
Knowing I’ll be able to forever share with the world that I’m a Coug Alum is the greatest gift, and a symbol of the fact that I’m a proud part of something that is so much bigger than myself.
Current students, soak it up while you can!
Live, laugh, Go Cougs.