Goodbye.

I have always hated having to say that. Now it is the last issue of the semester and the last issue for me. I will graduate in a couple of weeks and start a new life outside Missouri Southern. So I have to bid a fond farewell to my alma mater. I have enjoyed my time here and the people I have met. Sure, there have been times when it felt like all of this was too much for me. And there were times where if I had one more person trying to tell me how to live my life I would snap. But, I persevered through it all. Now I am on the threshold of graduation, and I have to bid auf wiedersehn to this lifestyle and hello to my next one.

Of course, I am going on to get my master’s degree, but I will be leaving behind a secular campus and head full steam into a religious campus. That is because I want to be a missionary, and if it was not for my time at Southern, I would not have realized this plan for my life. I would have stayed with journalism until I burned out, which would have been quickly after graduation, I feel.

This column is not meant to be a preaching platform – I have already done that. I would like to take this opportunity to give some advice that was not given to me when I started here. I feel like this would help other students who were not given any advice and were thrown into this place without any help at all.

First off, this is not high school. Do not act like it is high school; we are students at a respectable four-year university. Any childish notion of wanting to be the most popular student on campus means nothing. There are far too many students on campus for one person to be known by all of them. I guarantee every single student does not know the Student Senate president.

Second, find something to believe in, and hold on to it. These beliefs are what will strengthen you and give you comfort during the hard times of college life. It does not matter what your belief is in, as long as you believe in something, you can get through anything college life throws at you.

No matter what you think, you do have to choose a belief. You cannot go through life not believing in anything; even atheists believe in something. You have to decide, if you don’t remember what Rush said, “If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice. You can choose from phantom fears and kindness that can kill. I will choose a path that is clear. I will choose free will.”

One final piece of advice, no matter what you do, do not pull the mask off the Lone Ranger, don’t spit into the wind, and, no matter how tempted you are, do not tug on Superman’s cape.