The end of the semester brings a new chapter


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For most people, the end of the year is December 31. Around that time, millions of people around the globe get excited to shed whatever skin they wore the year before and somehow become new and improved versions of themselves.

But this is college — more specifically, USC. For us, the year ends when we finish the last final we’ve spent hours studying for. The next two weeks will be a mix of stress, sleeplessness, crankiness and tears for many students, until the inevitable moment when everyone’s Facebook news feed becomes an advertisement for the 901 Bar & Grill.

For many students, the end of the semester marks the beginning of summer, and they will spend the next three months tanning when they’re not at their internship. But for students like me, as in oh-my-I’m-graduating, the end of the semester marks the end of our undergraduate career.

Students from down the street to oceans away flock to our campus each fall for a multitude of reasons: great locale, great academics, great-looking people. But besides the more mundane-sounding “social life” excuse, there is something in the water here at ’SC. People here are … happy.

Happiness — the feeling of joy and contentment for exactly how your life is in that moment — is something that I’m sure a lot of us graduating seniors will miss. Gone are the days when our biggest concern was choosing between an all-nighter and a trip to The Row. Those tough decisions are now replaced by finding jobs, finding places to live and making sense of what the word “adult” truly means.

It doesn’t matter what your age is or where you’re headed in the next few weeks; we have to remember that we’re all Trojans. We’re built to fight for what we want and never settle. Whether you’ve spent the past few years throwing yourself into your academics, your fraternity, your philanthropy, you know that you’ve given it your all.

But now we’re moving on, and I have a feeling that I’m not the only one who feels both excited and scared at the moment. But isn’t that what’s supposed to happen? No one is really truly ready for life, we’re all just trying to survive one day at a time.

Today is the last edition of the Daily Trojan until fall semester starts up, but make sure you check out all of our online content as well as our weekly edition, Summer Trojan, starting on May 21. The Daily Trojan hopes you enjoyed this semester’s work and all of its changes, most notably our redesign. We hope you continue to look to us for high-quality content this coming summer and fall.

It might be the end of the year, but it’s also the beginning of a new chapter.

Fight On.

Sheridan Watson

Editor-in-Chief, Daily Trojan