The Big Day
Humans are the only living creatures that have this strange concept of time. We have numbered our days, printed them out big and bold on a calendar, and plastered it to our walls. Every day we wake up to do the old same things, yet every day we count one day up. In my eyes, it is a futile effort to fantasize control over something that is otherwise entirely out of our control.
However, this strange concept, enables all the short-term goals we have. Our yearly birthday, our monthly parties, our weekly yoga classes. We mark our calendars and wait patiently for time to do its job: pass us by.
One such important milestone I have marked and count up to, almost obsessively, is my graduation ceremony. On the day of 15 July 2021, I will earn my Bachelor of Science in Mechatronics from the Fontys University of Applied Sciences. I will be an engineer.
I shudder just at the thought of it. I shudder in anticipation. What will the ceremony look like? What dress will I hear? How should I do my hair? Do I have to speak? My mind battles these questions as I watch time pass me by. Until suddenly, I realized: this is it. The last two months of my life as a student. The last two months of being excused for making bad decisions, for procrastinating, for making excuses about how the dog ate my homework.
We humans are strange. I have looked forward to graduation since before I even started my bachelor’s. Yet feeling it so up close to me, all I think of now is the things I want to do one more time as a student. Wasn’t I done with school? Wasn’t I ready for the real world? Yet now, I want to turn back time. If only time worked that way. The Big Day is coming, whether I like it or not, and with it all the uncertainty, pride, and excitement of having made it this far and the adventures future holds.
Rina Manjrekar (22) is an international student at Fontys School of Engineering. She moved to the Netherlands four years ago from Malaysia. Here you can find her earlier columns for Bron.
Best of luck in the real world! Fontys was (or rather 'is') very lucky to have you as one of our students!
Does this mean you'll stop writing columns for Bron?
I will try to keep writing for Bron as much as I can, if it is allowed of course :)