Life Goes On....

By Dorothy J. Hill

Life goes on... It's something we often hear. Cliché? Why yes, but what hasn't become cliché? We all (well most of us) have a plan for our lives and what we want to happen. But, (there's always a but) not everything goes according to the plan you set out for yourself. There may have been something to unexpectedly occur, like a new responsibility or maybe it just wasn’t meant to be for that moment.

Take me for example... Before I graduated from high school, with a little influence from the College/Career Counselor, I had every intention of attending a historically black college or university, possibly Roosevelt in downtown Chicago, or my mom’s alma mater, DePaul. Long story short, it didn't happen as I planned. I never filled out any applications for an HBCU because I felt that I would be better off going to a place where I wasn’t part of the predominant population. I began an application for Roosevelt but never finished it and received a rejection letter from DePaul. I was bummed, mostly due to the fact that I felt like I wasn’t “good enough” to attend DePaul. It was like “my mom can go there, but I can’t!” Again, life goes on… At that time, in addition to the rejection, I wasn’t too hyped about going to college, mostly because of the 2.5 grade point average I was graduating from high school with. I guess you can say I was one of those students who had plenty of intelligence and potential, but was too lazy and lacked enough motivation to do better. During high school, and even now at times, I figured school wasn’t really that big of a deal.

Flash forward; I'm a student at SXU. Now, just so you know, I didn't know a thing about SXU until the day I decided to apply. It was only because I saw my boyfriend’s cousin applying. I thought “hey, it’s in Chicago?! 20 minutes away from home… Oh, what the heck. What’s the worst that could happen? I’ve experienced rejection, so if it happens again, whatever. Oh well…” What made the decision so awesome is that it was an unplanned action. I had no idea what to expect or, where I'd be.

After becoming settled in at SXU, I once again made plans for myself. In addition to my lovely philosophy of ‘no friends, just get my degree and go', I knew without a doubt that I would be graduating within four years, proceed to grad school and start my new life. Well, that didn't happen but life goes on... I wound up having to stay an additional year to complete my undergrad for a couple of reasons. During my second year, I was supposed to take the third semester of music theory, but unfortunately I couldn’t due to low enrollment. I had to wait until the following fall semester to take the course. On top of that, I needed that class in order to progress forward to the next courses for graduation. Once again, I say, life goes on... Things did not go the way that I wanted them to, but in hindsight, it all worked out in my favor. I landed the job of Training Coordinator for the Student Ambassador program, which by the way, I absolutely love! Plus, I have more time to pay back these wonderful student loans.

Of course this goes beyond the idea of college, though in some cases it's not so easy to say and accept that life goes on. For instance, if you lost someone you love or missed out on something you felt would've been a great thing for you. It's difficult sometimes. I know. Another prime example… I planned to be engaged to my boyfriend during my third year of undergrad. I just knew we’d be married by the time I graduated. Crazy, right? I know. Well, things happen and I am at least happy to say that we are six and a half years going strong.

In life we experience a lot of changes which causes our perspectives to shift. That change could be graduation, a promotion on a job, maybe you're moving to the next step in a relationship, or even moving to a new home after living in the same one all of your life. Whatever it may be, planned or unplanned, life will go on. It's just one of those uncontrollable instances. Sometimes you get what you want… or not. As difficult as it may be to just accept things for the way they are, it becomes just a little easier as you get older. So don’t pout or mumble unintelligible things when something doesn’t happen the way you want it to. Just remember that everything happens for a reason (cliché, I know, but it’s true) regardless of what happens, good or bad… LIFE GOES ON…

Until the next adventure…

Dorothy J. Hill is a senior from Chicago, IL. She is pursuing a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance. Dorothy is a Student Ambassador and currently serves as the Training Coordinator at Saint Xavier.