Three years go by extremely fast.

We seniors know this. We are aware.

Even as we moved our stuff in to our first dorm room, entered our first college classroom, received our first syllabus, made our first college friends, Boulevarded for the first time, joined our first organization, and etc. etc. etc. first first first, we understood.

Even if for no other reason than that adults always told us prior, “It’ll speed by, just wait and see,” we understood.

But wallowing in the knowledge of time’s rapidity means missing its ephemeral sweetness: the compilation of every single beautiful present moment threaded together to fashion who we are.

Thus we throw ourselves into each year as it comes. Freshman. Sophomore. Junior… Senior…

Wait. Really? Senior year? Already? That sounds a little crazy.

Okay, no it actually doesn’t, because we definitely have lived through three years of classes, struggles, battles, victories, friends made and lost, grades made and lost and pretty much hilarity-a-plenty.

So it’s not crazy. But it is. But it’s not. Yes.

Whatever our desire for stability, we are nevertheless caught in the midst of several paradoxes: We are excited for the year/We are excited to graduate.

We are interested in our classes and do not want them to end/We cannot wait until they are over when we get to apply them.

We count our friends among the dearest people of our lives/We are intrigued to think what beloved fellows we have yet to meet.

We are terrified of the future/We delight in imagining what exquisite possibilities may become realities… Blasted uncertainty! What is next?

SMU has been our home for three years.

Countless memories are tucked away inside the cracks between the cement blocks of the sidewalks.

Laughter and tears have been stored inside the tiny folds of bark on the trees that we pass everyday.

Hopes dashed. Hopes attained.

Oh how many times our feet have clicked along the floors of our halls! Or clapped with urgency those days we were running late (guilty).

We’ve grown up here.

We’ve made a home here.

Whether it is a nice one or a frustrating one has been largely our choice, but nevertheless it is a home.

Yet the present moment tells us we already face our final year.

Life is ephemeral, yes. It goes by extremely fast.

Perhaps, however, we should be grateful for this fact: time’s rapidity makes it all the more precious.

This senior year, we have the chance to savor what we love most of our time-well-spent.

One more year wherein every single beautiful-terrifying-awful-hilarious-devastating-awesome-ridiculous-fantastic-stressful-busy-sleepless-wonderful-elegant-casual-exceptional college

moment is as memorable as the next.

We may not know what the future holds, but we do know what to cherish. We have been made aware. Not by others telling us so, but by living.

So let’s do it. Let’s stand in the midst of lovely uncertainty and enjoy it in all its fullness.

The time to live is now.

Lydia Kapp is a senior majoring in Theater and Spanish. She can be reached for comment at [email protected].