Last Semester
Well, well. The time has finally arrived: my last semester at Cornell.
I spent years planning the perfect last semester- one filled with parties, mimosa brunches, a wines class, and exploring every Ithaca restaurant and winery on my bucket list. It’s taken a lot for me to write about this experience because quite honestly it’s taken a while for me to come to terms with it.
Writing has always been a pseudo therapy for me- a creative way for me to articulate my emotions by compiling the perfect group of words and searching for synonyms until I’ve defined my exact feelings. However, I couldn’t exactly articulate this feeling since I had never imagined myself feeling it nor have I ever felt it before. It’s easy to articulate experiences once we’ve had similar earlier ones, but tough to describe a situation that still doesn’t feel real. From the moment the first few cases of Covid-19 were discovered in Italy, life has felt more like a dream than reality in numerous ways:
I found the perfect boyfriend while abroad in Italy, and we started a long-distance relationship during a pandemic despite living in different countries. We’re still together.
My entire summer internship was remote and virtual rather than being the NYC experience I had always imagined for myself.
I take 3 covid tests per week at Cornell and haven’t been to a party in over a year.
Last semester, all of my classes were online. This semester, 2 are in person but those classes are Laughter and Costume Studio (in which I’m just sewing for ~2 hours). It’s hard to know if I am “bumping into” an old friend with everyone wearing masks, and even harder to make new friends via Zoom.
Orientation week, Labor Day weekend, Apple Harvest Fest, Halloween, Christmas, Sorority Recruitment, St. Patrick’s Day, Slope Day, and other events I was looking forward to celebrating with friends during a school year with more relaxed classes vanished.
My happy places on campus, where I went for a quiet or beautiful spot to reflect in, were all transformed into Covid-19 testing locations and permanently blocked from recreational use. Those places included Sage Chapel, Willard Straight Hall, and the Statler/Mac’s Cafe.
The gym in my very expensive apartment has been closed since the day I moved in. If you know me, you know that I need the gym.
I haven’t been to a Cornell library in over a year, mostly because we now have to reserve isolation rooms in those.
All of that being said, it also has been lovely to avoid waking up an hour earlier for a 20+ minute trek for an 8am class on campus from Collegetown, and lovelier to sleep without the sound of my neighbor fraternity annexes still rallying at 2am. Sometimes, when I hear the music of my neighbors from my window, I close my eyes and pretend it’s a normal semester in a normal world. We all know it’s not.
So what now? What have I REALLY been up to? Where is my head today?
Well, I think my head is in a great place today. After all, I finally mustered up enough courage to start writing about my thoughts again. A lot has happened since March 2020. On a very basic level, this is what last semester looked like for me:
I got all of my business major classes out of the way (so that I could enjoy my last semester with easy/fun courses). Classes included Python for Business Analytics, Behavioral Finance, Corporate Finance, and Introduction to Acting.
I officially declared my Performing and Media Arts minor.
I started writing poetry, painting, and taking more Instagram-worthy photos again. Who needs beautiful European buildings when you have a beautiful imagination? (Okay, me, but I made the most out of it).
My boyfriend visited me on campus twice, and I was able to explore Ithaca places I’ve never been to before, including Ithaca Beer Co.
I spent time with friends in a more intimate and cozy way, bonding over music, food, and television rather than our favorite songs or drinks at a frat party.
I completed a lifelong bucket list item: performed my own set in a comedy show. Actually, I even became a Marketing VP for Cornell’s only stand-up comedy club.
If you’re spotting a trend here, something along the lines of prioritizing activities that make me happy, then you’re absolutely correct. While you may think this all started because Covid-19 allowed me to discover my true values in life, this journey begins even earlier (though at first, I thought it was also thanks to Covid). Let’s start back at my freshman year at Cornell:
I had such a tough academic semester, that I dropped my credits down to 10 and petitioned to be considered a full-time student. Adjusting to the culture, climate, and feeling of being far from home hit my “adaptive” self much harder than I made everyone believe.
After getting rejected by most Cornell clubs I applied to, the Dyson Undergraduate Council made me feel competent and confident again. I was even elected to a position due to my creativity.
My favorite class was my Freshman Writing Seminar, in which my professor opened my eyes to different performance and fine arts mediums and took the class on a field trip to NYC. This class kept me at Cornell. The professor connected me to my first college internship boss.
I was constantly so sick that my throat quite literally didn’t function every time an audition for a performance group arose (even sophomore year), so I felt FOMO come junior year fall semester. Luckily, a girl in my sorority was starting a comedy club open to anyone, and I joined.
Sophomore year, I took no classes outside of my major, but I took many trips back home. I had a tough time finding finance internships, though I was desperate to learn about that industry all of my classmates kept speaking about. I declared a finance concentration but knew I had to take more fun classes Junior Fall.
Comedians had always fascinated me and became my source of therapy when things got tough freshman year, so I looked into a PMA minor. I also wanted to feel more cultured, so I took Global Cinema and a Fashion History course. I fell in love with those classes, went to CTB for coffee between each, and creativity rushed right back into my brain as fast as my happiness did to my soul. I then applied to go abroad and took the hardest finance concentration courses in Italy last spring.
My abroad semester ended roughly since the classes were so difficult, but I passed everything with fairly impressive scores and had a 2-day break before starting the most impressive finance internship one could get junior year: KKR. It was intense, but the people were amazing. Through that experience, I realized the lifestyle of a finance job wasn’t exactly for me, but the tasks related to working with people, analyzing data, and creating presentations made my brain happy.
So, I took on a sustainable athleisure marketing internship last semester, in which I applied all of my personal social media skills and experiences to the startup job. It was then that I realized my heart is in fashion, sustainability, beauty, and marketing. I am creative. It was a gear shift.
So fast forward to this semester. What classes am I taking? What’s the 411?
Laughter, Screening Cosa Nostra, Costume Design Studio, Screenwriting, and Wines are my classes
The internship ended, but I’m currently trying to get a job in marketing, advertising, or strategy.
Life still feels somewhat like a dream, but I’ve got a greater grasp over my trajectory again. I feel more in control and in touch with who I am and where I’m headed, which I am incredibly proud to say. I’ve realized that my values and interests are what make me who I am, and life is too short to settle for a job that doesn’t fulfill you. It’s too short to take boring classes and too precious to cancel plans. Prioritizing my mental health and happiness has actually allowed me to better manage my time and health. I’m in a much better place than I was a year ago today, and while this past year may not have been the one I planned, it has truly been the most impactful.
This may be the last semester of my undergraduate experience, but the learning will never stop. The writing won’t either. These next few months, you can expect more blogs and even vlogs coming your way (well actually, you’ll have to come their way since I’ll just be posting them on my sites). Hopefully, this post benefited you or made you feel some type of way. If it didn’t, that’s okay. It made me feel a lot better to write again, and right now that’s all that matters to me.
Best,
Joanna
