It is that time of year again.

The temperature week by week is dropping, the leaves are changing colors and falling, and the morning traffic is back to being hectic because all of the school buses. The streets are filled with children in uniform making their way to school.

Summer is coming to an end.

The students of American International College are back on campus, bringing life to it after a quiet summer. The Quadrangle is packed with students looking for their classes. The offices of AIC are packed with students trying to make sure their arrangements are set for the new semester.

Many may not realize how important this incoming year is, but for the returning seniors of AIC this year is a big deal.

If you are reading this and you are a fellow senior or rising senior, hello there! It is our time to rise to the occasion and execute the task and finally cross that stage after a long four years.

Where has time gone? We were all just freshman. We were just going to senior prom and picking out graduation outfits.

Yet here we are again, preparing to cross another stage and receive another accomplishment!

I remember last May seeing all the seniors of 2017 post their graduation photos and I just thought to myself, “I cannot wait for that to be me.”

Now, in May 2018, my peers and I will become American International College’s 2018 graduating class.

Give yourself a round of applause! You made it; you are one semester away from crossing the finish line.

Did I use my time as an undergraduate productively?

Did I try my best?

Could I have done something more?

These are the questions running through our minds but the time is now and it too late to dwell on the things we cannot change.

We need to get ourselves mentally prepared for the real world. We complained all three-and-a-half years about what AIC could have done better, but to think we are leaving this place that we have become so accustomed to.

Whether we would like to admit it or not, we will miss this place. AIC has become our home away from home and after next May we will be forced to leave the nest.

We will no longer have that day-to-day guide also known as our schedule, as our general layout for the week. We have made friends and interacted with so many different kinds of people.

I am hoping this interaction taught us how to understand individuals and respect that we will disagree but as long as there is still respect, one can coexist.

Graduation is around the corner, which means it is time to find work in the fields we just finished studying. There is so much pressure to find a full-time job – partly because we all would like to live on our own and not go back home. Just the thought of applying to graduate school is exhausting.

We are being thrown the safety net that AIC has created for us for almost four years. I know, the thought is scary. Now b-r-e-a-t-h!

The lessons that we have learned in these previous years of schooling will help us overcome those obstacles. We need to keep in mind that we can help one another, even after we graduate.

People do not realize it, but college is huge place with plenty of networks. The relationships we uphold after entering the real-world essential to our success in our adulthood.

I will end with this – always have faith in yourself and make the most out of every moment!