By Ava C. Green, Features Editor
This semester chewed me up, spit me out and changed me in ways I would have never believed. Through all of the terror of growing and doing new things, Canisius never failed to send me little lifelines to tell me I’d be okay right where I am. And so, here they are, the moments that made this semester so important to me.
10. My first paper as Features Editor: Changing my major to journalism was absolutely pivotal in my growth as a student here, and with that came joining The Griffin. On move-in day the first thing I did was grab our orientation edition to look at my snazzy new title. Seeing myself succeed in something that I cared about and had fun doing so opened a world of possibilities for me.
9. The first snowfall: I am not a native Buffalonian, but as a central new yorker, I’m no stranger to snow. But somehow the first snowfall always manages to make me all giddy. When the snow first fell on campus, we had to act fast knowing this light dusting would soon be an entire blizzard. My friends and I raced outside to play in the snow before it was up to our armpits. It was so fun seeing so many people outside doing the same. It stopped being fun when the snow got in my phone and it had to spend the night in a cup of rice.
8. Bad portrait night: This event was highly anticipated for all of the fabulous Art Club regulars and our e-board was so excited and prepared for a great turnout. Sadly, the poor weather that day heavily stunted our attendance. But, where the present participants lacked in quantity, they more than made up for in quality. They embraced the prompt with vigor and creativity. Now, can we please get a petition out to do a redo of this event?
7. Dinner with Stoute/Pocatello: My journey of collecting all of the infinity stones of involvement at Canisius gets overwhelming and hard to manage at times. But, when you have the opportunity to do so many things you love, how could you not just do them all? I had a particularly exciting day where I went from a Griffin staff dinner with President Stoute and ran immediately to opening night of Little Theater’s Pocatello, the first play that I was the head of costuming for! It was an incredibly fulfilling day. Plus, I got to wear THREE super cute outfits that day!
6. Becoming a tour guide: It's a great day to be a Griff! As often as I repeated this mantra throughout the semester, I wasn’t able to earnestly say it until becoming a tour guide about a month ago. Being a tour guide is basically just being our school’s wing-man. Get it? ‘Cause, like, griffins have wings. I digress. Giving a speech about how great your school is multiple times a week has been a constant, less-than-subtle reassurance that your taste in academic institutions is superior.
5. Petey getting a caricature: Fall Fest weekend was all around a great time for Canisius this year. For some reason though, I was very tickled by the photo in the Family Weekend post on @canisius_college on Instagram. I knew who was in the Petey costume for that event which made it 10x funnier. I am always impressed by how much school spirit our tiny community has. Not only are my friends willing to get in a sweaty, heavy costume for hours, but they fight for it too!
4. Monday: To contradict the words of a wise, lasagna-loving cat, I love Mondays. This semester I have made some of my best memories on Monday nights. We watched “Bachelor in Paradise'' like it was the Super Bowl, went to last minute formals, had double birthday/Halloween parties and drove through two states and back for a concert. Monday is an inherently annoying day, but who says it can’t be fun every once in a while?
3. Halloweekend: During the weekend of Halloween at college, the world stands still and nothing matters but your costume and where we were all going that night. Professors and students alike have a silent, mutual agreement that no school work will be getting done that weekend. Plus, it will always be funny to see that random person you never talk to (who is 21 in this hypothetical) take shots out of a mini-pumpkin then go to class with them the next day.
2. Tree lighting: This was such a beautiful and special moment for our school. To come together after such an amazing semester with new systems, new leadership, loss and triumph. It was a lovely way to mark the holiday season. What was even lovelier was the entire student body sprinting towards Grupp like our lives depended on it the very second it was over. The thrill of being trampled only strengthened the comradery in that moment of mass competition for the Griffmas sweater.
1. Tim Hortons gave me a free donut: It’s okay to have those days where nothing seems to go how you planned and hope is lost. I had a day like this not too long ago. I remember leaving the library to get some tea, feeling like I had even more work to do than when I started. The cashier at Tim’s told me they had two donuts left that they wanted to get rid of before the night ended, so obviously I took them. Maybe it was the sugar that fueled my productivity that night, but my intrinsic motivation was to make sure that the kindness of this Tim Horton’s employee would not be in vain.
As this semester comes to a close, it’s natural to get tunnel vision and equate the holistic college experience with the intensity and chaos of finals week. It is important to not sink into the madness and find clarity by appreciating all the small things. These moments on their own didn’t change my life or alter my brain’s make-up. They kept me grounded when it all became too much and have already made me excited to embark on the Spring semester.