From the beginning of freshman year, senior columns have always been my favorite part of the Massachusetts Daily Collegian. For just a minute you are let into the life of someone that has been in Amherst the past four years and yet has had such a different experience then your own. Senior columns just put things in perspective, for me at least, and related or not after struggling to produce 750 words bi-weekly for this newspaper I figured this column, if anything, would be the easiest thing I will ever write.

I was wrong. I’ve been staring at a blank Word document for about a week debating where to start. And now that the due date has long past and this is my absolute last chance to share my experience, I have to give in and commit.

I guess it all started, like everyone else, in high school applying for schools. I had no idea what to do, I just knew I wanted to go somewhere with anything I would ever be interested in. The University of Massachusetts popped up on the list.

Somewhere down the line after visiting campus in January on a day with sub-zero temperatures I decided this was the place I was going to attend for college.

People ask me now, being from New Jersey, why I choose UMass. To be honest I don’t know what the deciding factor was but we can pretend it was because UMass had the most options.

I came here blind, knowing I wanted to do something with architecture, communications, or marketing … maybe. I took classes in all the above and decided on communications by sophomore year. I completed my communications requirements by junior year. I also needed something to do for the remainder of my 120 credits so I dabbled in psychology for about a day – not kidding – I was in the major for a day. The following day I switched out and joined the journalism department which offered some pretty cool classes like web design and photography.

But whoever said going into college undecided slows you down and causes you to attend extra years is lying. In a few days I will be graduating with two degrees and a minor in the same time it took many to receive one. I would say I’ve turned out pretty well.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

I also came to UMass alone. I didn’t have anyone from high school to run back to unless I was going to travel three hours every weekend. I stepped out of what I knew and took a chance and this may be totally cliché but I’m extremely glad I did.

I’ve met people so completely different than me, people I would never have imagined associating myself with going into all of this but they’ve become some of my best friends.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that UMass has really opened a lot of doors for me. Not to sound preachy, but join a club or something you really enjoy doing. Devote yourself to something other than schoolwork for a few hours a day.

The Collegian is the best and worst thing that has ever happened to me. I’ve been working in the graphics room, which is actually a really neglected part of the Campus Center basement with a leaky ceiling and ugly new-born-baby-boy-blue paint on the walls. For some reason this place has become my second home, so much so that I walk about barefoot on disgusting carpet that whoever is supposed to clean those sort of things forgets about. I know that sounds totally gross, but I’ve probably spent more time in that office then anywhere else in Amherst.

I’ve designed too many advertisements that not enough people have looked at for two years and loved every second.

Okay, that was a lie. Every time an ad ran wrong I had a mini-heart attack. Seriously, the guy at Off The Wall Games hates me. And Adam, if you’re reading this I’m REALLY sorry.

The combination of mini-heart attacks and the asbestos I’ve probably been inhaling for the last two years was worth it. I’ve gained some valuable experience working with a diverse group of kind of odd people that you would never picture meshing together that I would have never had the chance to cross paths with otherwise.

See, I didn’t think I could fill 750 words and now I only have space for like 20 more.

In the end plain and simple, I’m extremely thankful for the opportunities that presented themselves to me here at UMass. I came in knowing nothing about what I wanted to do and now I almost have two degrees. I’ve stayed up way to late writing papers at the crack of dawn and talking about nothing with good friends. We did bad things because we were in college. I went with the flow and allowed myself to get involved just about everything I would have ever wanted. I guess that was all I could have asked for.

Amanda Joinson was The Collegian’s Advertising Production Manager. She can be reached at [email protected].