None of us knew who and what we’d become when we left high school and entered college four years ago.
You may have been a varsity athlete. You might have been the lead in your school play. Or the artist who painted your senior class mural. That was who you were then, but you wanted to discover more about yourself, you wanted to add more chapters to your story.
You arrived in college with a singular question: “What’s next?” In that first year, you gained insight and the desire to ask more questions, such as “who am I?”
For me, that was a 19-year-old freshman riding the F train in the Bronx, considering whether I needed to transfer to get the most out of my college experience. Maybe you already were a Naz student sitting at home spring semester sophomore year, sporting a laptop imprint on your thigh, waiting to hear if and when campus life would return to normal. Or you’ve been three coffees in at 2 a.m. in the library’s fishbowl, cramming for your big final.
We all have had our individual college experiences, but we also have one shared experience: the Nazareth College experience. This is where we continued to discover the truths about who we are and where we took a larger role in becoming the tellers of our own stories.
At Naz, I discovered I was not only a writer, but a journalist. I was also a competitive runner on the varsity team for two years, until medical reasons abruptly ended my track career. Reconciling with not being an athlete anymore was difficult, as I’d been competing for the past eight years.
Though I’m no longer a competitive athlete, I haven’t lost the things running taught me.
A cornerstone of journalistic writing is being on a tight deadline, which is like racing the clock. Adjusting your form is like editing and constantly sharpening your writing skills.
So now, maybe you’re headed to graduate school, applying for full-time work, or maybe taking this time to breathe and get your footing on solid ground. Or perhaps some of each.
Take the time. You got here. This moment is the culmination of years of work in the classroom, in labs, on the fields and courts, in the pool, around the track, on the stage, in late-night Cab runs, with student clubs, and in every possible way you gave yourself the opportunity to receive an education at Nazareth that has prepared you for “what’s next.”
No one can predict what will happen when we all leave this campus. But I’d like to leave you with a piece of advice my late grandfather gave me.
“The paper you hang on the wall from your college only tells people that you have the ability to learn … it’s your responsibility to show people what you know.”
It’s time to turn the page and continue the story.
That’s what’s next.
Madeline Dovi ‘22 (communication and media major, English minor), was hired before graduation as associate editor for the Daily Caller News Foundation in Washington, D.C., and will be reporting on the U.S. Justice Department.