"Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow"
A Brief Message to Those Entering Life Post-College Graduation
4 years have come and gone. In about one week, I and many many others will be closing out the latest chapter of our lives. We have survived “the COVID years,” and we will continue to survive whatever chaos follows them.
Wow. What a ride. I first joined The Cowl (Providence College’s official student newspaper) in my sophomore year, and I first started writing for this blog about a year later. I would like to begin by thanking Fr. Jordan Zajac for inspiring me to take up the pen and write. I would also like to thank Christina Charie, Madelyn Young, and Emma Strempfer for their patience.
The Cowl—and the Providence College experience in general—has been such a terrific experience for me. Even though I have written for school newspapers in the past, I never knew how much I enjoyed writing until I became a part of the Providence College family. The Friar Family is the inspiration behind Salzillo’s Two Cents. If it ever finds any success (which I truly hope it does), I will have the Friar Family to thank for that.
In my 2 years writing opinion pieces for The Cowl and for Salzillo’s Two Cents, I can only hope that I have helped some readers understand and, more importantly, endure the ups and downs of the latest news cycle. I feel deeply for the challenges my generation has been through. As Thomas Paine once said, “these are the times” that try our souls. But these are also the times that we can prove who we really are. “The ultimate measure of a man,” Martin Luther King Jr. observed, “is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”
If nothing else, I hope my words can encourage all of you to follow the path that your passions take you to. Or the paths that conscience forces you to take. Yes, the road will be long, hard, and filled with suffering. But take up your cross and find your place in the madness of today’s America. Because you may discover that you are more powerful than you think.
“In the name of democracy, let us all unite!” And happy graduation.