Dear Incoming Students,
The importance of being involved in school is not something you are just hearing for the first time. I’m sure you have heard many times to get involved in school because it’s a great way to make friends and it looks great on college applications. Now, you are about to enter college and I want to tell you the same: Get involved and do it early!
I started my first two years at Cabrini playing on the tennis team. I loved being active and having a team made moving into a new area a lot easier. (My current roommate was one of my first friends from the team.) At the end of my sophomore year, I attended a service trip to New Orleans to rebuild homes for Hurricane Katrina victims. Something about being there and volunteering my time sparked something in me. I knew this is something I wanted to continue doing. I needed more.
Using my newfound carpentry skills to rebuild a home in New Orleans during a service trip
The girls that I met on that trip really brought me out of my shell and made me realize I wanted to surround myself around positive people. I immediately signed up for the Search Retreat and Adventure Retreat. By the end of the spring semester, I got the job as Peer Minister in Campus Ministry. I have met so many wonderful people throughout my four years here and I know I will keep in touch with a lot of them because we have shared some great memories together. The majority of my friendships started from campus involvement.
College is such an important time to figure out who you are, what’s important to you, and what you want to do in life. In four years, you are going to meet a large variety of different people and you are going to learn so much from them. Challenge yourself to do something out of the ordinary. I never knew about service trips until I actually went on one and now it is something that is really important to me.
Holding a corn tortilla that I made during a short-term study abroad trip to Guatemala
Make a difference. This school has given me so many opportunities to do extraordinary things and there are so many ways of doing that. College is meant to make a person step out of their comfort zone and truly figure out who they are as a person. If you go and put yourself out there, your involvement on campus will impact the people you hang out with, your values, memories, etc.
I am about a month away from graduation and my friends and I have been reflecting on our years here. There are so many memories: service trips, paddleboarding, horseback riding, sports events, laughs, cries, train rides, deep conversations, good food, and movie nights. I am so grateful for all of these memorable times. Unfortunately, we have also been thinking about the great opportunities we have missed out on. There is always that one thing that each senior wishes they did.
Think about yourself, what you really love to do, and make it happen while you’re here. There are so many different clubs, teams, and activities on campus that you can be involved with. Make the best use of some of the quickest four years of your life. When you graduate, what kind of memories would you want to look back on from your years here?
I hope you enjoy this amazing place as much as I did because I wish I could do it all over again.