This is it.
These will be my last few words that will be printed for The Daily Collegian. By the time you read this, I will have completed my term as metro chief and my time at the Daily Collegian.
I would be lying if I didn’t say I haven’t thought about what my last words will actually mean to anyone out there. My college experience has been bittersweet. I have seen many of my friends from freshman year at Penn State Berks drop out or we have gone separate ways.
Just to let them know, I miss you.
My college experience was supposed to be with my best friend. But that changed and we never got the chance of getting to live together.
Everyone always asks me: why Penn State?
My answer is this: I didn’t choose Penn State; it chose me. It wasn’t my first choice, as for many students out there. I used it as my safety school.
But, I’m glad I came here. If it weren’t for Penn State, I would’ve never been able to do what I’ve done the past four years. I’m convinced that any opportunities I have had was because of the Collegian. That is including everything from my first internship, to any job I will get within the next few months.
I can count the many politicians I have seen. I can recall most political events from the primaries onward. I can remember what it feels like to be in the middle of giant crowds downtown, covering them twice in my time here.
I can’t count the many hours of sleep I’ve lost or the gallons of coffee I drank. I can’t recall how many phone calls I’ve made or what stories fell through. I can’t remember what it feels like to a normal student.
But I wouldn’t trade those experiences for anything. The last four and a half years have taught me a few things about the world.
One lesson is to never give up — no matter how rough the road gets.
I thought about quitting on a few occasions, when my grades weren’t good enough and I was too tired to study on.
And then I laughed. I can’t quit anything. In fact, I can count on one hand the times I have quit something (piano lessons, THON and a really bad waitress job). That’s probably why I have stayed at the Collegian through some of the roughest parts of my college career: 18 credits deep, sleep deprived and stressed from working. But I knew if I had quit, I never would have made it this far.
I never would’ve been able to see all four major Republican candidates in the spring. I wouldn’t have been able to edit through a hurricane, an election and an indictment. I would have never been the person I am today if I had quit.
So, my wisdom to bestow upon the many underclassmen that will maybe read this senior column: don’t quit. Quitting doesn’t solve anything.
You don’t learn anything from quitting. You don’t learn hard work, sticking it out. You won’t grow as a human being. Don’t quit. Not school, not activities, not your roommates, not your life, not your dreams.
Quitting doesn’t break you from the thing you quit from, but keeps it hanging on, wishing you’d have done more.
Instead of quitting, find the lining and focus on that.
Work hard; trudge through the rough spots, because you’ll come out a better person on the other end.
I have, and though that doesn’t make me a creditable source, it’s the lesson I learned from college and one that will stick with me through life. Starting now.
I won’t quit from finding a job or continuing my knowledge in life. And my wish for you that are reading this very same thing, to not quit.
So, when the papers pile up and the readings go on forever, just remember it will make you a better person, even if sitting there, gritting your teeth you feel like it won’t. Trust a person who has made it through those readings and papers.
Not quitting will make you a better person.
Lynn Ondrusek is a senior majoring in journalism and is the Daily Collegian metro chief. Email her at lmo5052@psu.edu
