Famous musician John Lennon once said, “When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.”
The question “What do you want to be when you grow up?” has followed everyone since kindergarten. Maybe Lennon had the right answer after all, but for most kids, the usual response was anywhere from a princess to an astronaut to a firefighter. Whatever the response, one thing remained the same, “growing up” seemed to be lightyears away.
For Asbury seniors, “growing up” is just months away.
“I always answered what I wanted to be with Tornado Chaser,” said senior Madison Anderson. Despite not “chasing” that dream, Anderson did find another she is deeply passionate about in journalism.
Anderson is continuing her education with the Masters in Communication here at Asbury, and even though her college experience isn’t technically over she still feels “a sense of anxiety” with it being her last semester because it is still “a change in season which is probably weird to everyone.”
A lot of different feelings are hitting seniors as they begin their final semester. Seniors Ian Wilkinson and Andrew Cox feel excited to be done with school and are ready to see what life holds after college.
“It is definitely scary, but I am ready to get into the career field and start working,” Wilkinson said.
However, there are conflicting emotions with the impending end of his time as a student. He feels this sense of nostalgia and sadness knowing his college career is coming to an end, but at the same time he is “very ready to be done with school.”
Cox said he has never really been sure what he wanted to be when he grew up, but he is “figuring things out and trying to see what life looks like after college.”
As this season comes to a close for the beloved Surrendered class, this can be a time of reflection on all that has been accomplished in your time here at Asbury University.
“It’s a nice feeling, kinda just looking back and seeing how much I’ve accomplished in college even though it has been a short time,” said Cox.
Many questions still circulate about what students want to be when they “grow up,” but there is still time to make our child-like imagination soar. According to Lennon, happiness is always an option.
