From the Editor’s Desk: It’s Senior Year, Say Yes to Everything

Three weeks ago to the day, I finished my summer reporting internship at the Spokesman-Review, the newspaper in Spokane, Wash. The very next day, I hopped in the car at 6 a.m. with my friend and fellow Rambler Ella Daugherty and drove across the country for four days to get to Chicago, camping and exploring the American West on the way. 

I pulled up to the apartment I share with my four closest friends that Sunday night, and the very next day after that, I started my fourth and final year at Loyola and at The Phoenix. 

Lamenting on the phone to my older brother about the whiplash of the week, I mistakenly told him that I’m sure things would calm down once I managed to unpack and get settled into my classes and the whirlwind deadlines that come with working on a paper. 

He instantly corrected me. Things would not calm down, he said, and I would probably remain just as busy for the rest of my tenure at Loyola. But that’s the beauty of college. 

His advice was silly, effective and uncomfortably final: say yes to everything so much so that by the time you graduate, you’ll be more than ready to move on to a new chapter of life. 

As chaotic, unsustainable and exhausting as college may be, there are few times in your life where you get the uninterrupted space to just figure it out as you go. 

No one expects you to live perfectly. Staying out playing cards at the bar until 1 a.m. and waking up a few hours later to clock in for the morning shift at Halas is completely acceptable. Taking a mid-day break to lie on the quad and take in Loyola’s Lake Shore Campus is a fine way to spend the afternoon. 

Saying yes to everything is letting go of the hard lines of the past three years and opening the circle to new friends, new chances and new inspirations. Because in one short year, all my friends may not live in the same one-mile radius, and I may have to take a plane to eat lunch with the same girls I once sent daily “Meet me in Damen” texts to. 

So squeeze it in, go to the party where you only know one person, take a chance on a new Chicago spot and say yes to everything you can. We can sleep when we’re dead or graduated.

And while you’re at it, say yes to reading — or joining! — The Phoenix. This week, learn more about the city’s plans for data centers in News, read about the legacy of Dolly Parton in Arts and catch up on the start of the fall season in Sports.