During Freshman Orientation, I attended a special Mass for all of the new freshmen at which our vice-president of Student Affairs, Father Mark, gave a beautiful homily about enjoying our time at Notre Dame.
He told us about a recent conversation he had had with an elderly Notre Dame alumnus whose love for the school had only grown in the decades since his long-ago graduation.
“If I could go back there, and be an undergraduate again,” that old man had said to him, “I would squeeze every last drop out of that place.”
As a freshman, I pondered those words and internalized them. Squeeze out every last drop, I often thought, and I promised myself to do just that. So began an endless whirl of fun activities, the sort I’m sure you’re familiar with. Every weekend brought movie nights, dinner parties, and other outings with my friends, while weekdays were busy with lectures, plays and evening discussions on top of classes and homework. It was a charmed life and so much fun, but in the midst of it all, I would sometimes feel restless, as though my activities lacked a center. True, I tried to attend Mass daily, but at times even this beloved “date with Jesus” (if you will) became just another thing to check off on the to-do list, another activity to squeeze in between class and dinner.
Now that I’ve graduated, I find that the times I remember most fondly are not all the activities and events but rather the rare quiet moments between them all ... And I realized that I had the order wrong the whole time, after all. To “squeeze out every last drop” did not mean to go to every single event and activity on campus. It meant to savor, to cherish, to enjoy the small and simple moments that happen every day.
...I have to remind myself sometimes of what I learned from my undergraduate career: savor every moment, don’t cram it with activities.
So as one of the resident college grads and working women here at the Catholic Young Woman, that’s the advice I want to share with my high school and undergraduate readers: don’t fill up your schedule. Say no to the occasional activity. Make time to sit in silence, to write, to read, to think, to dream, and most of all to converse with God.Read it all here.
Sometimes if your schedule is packed so full you can easily have a difficult time really appreciating all the moments and end up just rushing through them, checking things off your list. It's important to be involved and take advantage of the opportunities that you're being given during your time in college, but don't let it become a hailstorm of activities to the point where you can't enjoy the activities. Silence, prayer and quiet moments with friends are so important during this time of your life as you try to discern what God wants for you and lots of decisions are being made. Be sure that you make time for prayer and daily Mass. Prayer and Mass will lay the foundation for everything else to be built upon. Be sure to truly enter in to the Mass rather than just going through the motions. If you pray, seek counsel, develop strong friendships and spend time in silence you will be more at peace and better able to make healthy decisions.
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