Pushing Through

By Dorothy J. Hill

Pushing Through

By this time, things should be going fairly smoothly in school. The first week is always a little difficult to deal with. You’re just getting back into the swing of things. You have to become re-adjusted to getting up early (if you didn’t have to over break), going to class and work. It is a different kind of adjustment for everyone. As a freshman or sophomore and even for some junior level students, it’s almost a thing of just a routine. Class, work, eat, study, sleep and repeat. As a junior or senior, you begin to focus on the next step after undergrad, especially as a senior. Being a senior, I can completely understand. I sometimes suffer from what is known as senioritis, but I am still being responsible.

Once you get to a certain place in your life and experience various things, you begin to view things through a different perspective. Simply put it is called growing up. There are a lot of people that have been in a mature place for a great deal of their lives and there are others who may have had a little bit of a cushion to fall on with their family. It varies, but either way it goes we all (or at least should) become mature adults. We have responsibilities to focus on. For instance, you have school, work, home, and your person, or persons (kids), to focus on. Then there are the finances that come along with each of those things. You go to work to make money and for some of us, much of that money has to go toward bills. And, this is barely scratching the surface of the responsibilities one may have.

Being in school and dealing with everything else can definitely present some stress. However, you always have to push through regardless of the load you are carrying. Life gives you all kinds of things to deal with but you have to learn how to keep things balanced. Being in the final stages of my undergraduate career, there is a lot that has to be focused on. Not only do I have to focus on graduation, but there is also what follows... Adulthood. I’ve already made my transition into being an adult, but I don’t have as much to deal with right now. After I graduate, I have intentions of going to grad school (which I’m greatly anticipated to hear about). There is also a strong desire to hopefully land a job at the institution that has provided me with such wonderful opportunities. Because of my experiences as a student at SXU, I want to be able to try to provide the same kinds of experiences and opportunities to others.

While I am keeping graduation, grad school and a job in mind, there are other things that are key factors as well. There is adding the responsibility of a car, possibly an apartment and marriage. It is my hope that everything will work out rather smoothly and that I will be able to do everything I need and want to do to ensure a lucrative career and fulfilling life. It is definitely a challenge but these things always provide great experiences to learn from and help to build and strengthen your character.

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.