March 17, 2020
Jocelyn Tucker is a senior from Linden, MI majoring in advertising management in the College of Communication Arts and Sciences and minoring in entrepreneurship and innovation and advertising analytics. Jocelyn is also a media/marketing intern at University Communications and the communications assistant at the A-CAPP Center at MSU.
For many college seniors, we cherish every moment and memory made in the final months of our spring semester.
We take senior photos in front of the stadium, sit in the Izzone for one last time and enjoy the company of our roommates as we have one final sleepover full of laughter. We prepare to say our many goodbyes, and we prepare to sit in our very last undergraduate class.
But for the seniors of the class of 2020, we had no time to prepare for what has taken our world by storm, and what has cost us our senior year goodbyes.
As the news came out last Wednesday that we would no longer attend class in-person, many Spartans expressed excitement — maybe even joy — because we no longer have to roll out of bed for that 8 a.m. class.
This excitement quickly dissipated as we realized what that really meant — we had already sat through our very last in-person undergraduate class.
I am fortunate enough that I will return to campus post-graduation as a full-time employee, but for many, they will not return. When Spartan seniors said goodbye last week, they said goodbye to a lifestyle they won’t find anywhere else.
We will no longer enjoy the surprise of color as we walk past the MSU Rock on our way to class, or hear the sounds of Beaumont Tower ringing as we head into the library for a long night of studying.
We will miss watching the flow of the Red Cedar River as we walk to the Breslin Center for a night of basketball, or a gathering of friends MSU has blessed us with for a half-off Wednesday at Harper’s.
We have already experienced the many "lasts" this campus lifestyle has afforded us, and we weren’t able to fully appreciate every second because we didn’t know they would be the last.
As we sit at home doing our online classes in our pajamas, we have few words to describe the loss we are feeling. What just a week ago was excitement and celebration for our last semester, is now a feeling of absence that came too soon.
Let us be thankful for the friendships we've made and revel in the memories. Winnie the Pooh once said, “How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.”
I know that I made the right decision in choosing MSU as my home for the last four years. We Spartans, especially Spartan seniors, will get through this together.
Forever, Go Green!