Posted: 05/03/06

The road ahead for seniors
The beginning of the rest of their lives

Ryan Dulude | managing editor
rdulude@smcvt.edu

Brian Fitzmaurice couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

The St. Michael’s senior business major, having just returned from putting a load of laundry into the washing machine, listened intently to a message from an official with the American Hockey League affiliate Albany River Rats asking for an interview with Fitzmaurice for a sales position at the club.

Fitzmaurice, a 22-year-old with a vibrant personality and a 100-watt smile, let out a whoop and jumped up and down with fists pumping in the air.

“I was speechless,” says Fitzmaurice. “It just meant that all the hard work and sacrifice that it took to get here was all worth it.”

That hard work and sacrifice that Fitzmaurice speaks of has come to a culmination for all of the soon-to-be graduates of the St. Michael’s Class of 2006.

In about two weeks' time, on May 18, the Class of 2006 will be garbed in graduation robes, marching up to receive degrees and to conclude what some consider to be the best four years of their lives.

“I think college has done a lot for me as a whole,” Fitzmaurice says. “It’s pushed me to succeed because I’m the first person in my family to graduate from college, and it has pushed me to achieve my goals.”

Senior biology major Adrienne Charboneau says that her self-confidence has taken a huge boost in college.

“The most important thing is that I’ve figured out who I am,” she says. “I’ve learned to be independent and live on my own. I am going to miss the community life with people of the same age though, and the carefree life with no real responsibilities.”

Four years after driving up Route 15 at what seemed like a snail’s pace to be welcomed at the entrance by a bunch of crazed juniors and seniors raising poster board and blaring whistles, the sturm und drang of real life is approaching.

Gone will be the days of waking up at 11 a.m. after a crazy night out on the 300s field, or sleeping through that 9:30 a.m. class because two more skips are still allowed in it.

Once graduation ends, this senior class will begin to carve out the dreams that it has been imagining since the younger years.

“My dream is eventually to become the head coach of a Division I college hockey program,” Fitzmaurice says. “In five years though, I see myself as being the executive director of sales for a minor league hockey team or a sports organization.”

Charboneau has accepted a position as a medical assistant at Lake Champlain gynecologic oncology in Burlington, Vt.

“I’ll just stick to this to start out my career,” she says, “but eventually I hope to be working in the pharmaceutical field either researching, looking to find medicines to fix problems, or promoting and selling drugs.”

Before any of that takes place, however, the Class of 2006 must come to terms with the social adjustment of being away from friends they’ve developed over the last four years.

“I don’t want to grow up. I heard the real world sucks,” Charboneau says. “It’s weird to think about never seeing most of the people you’ve been with for the last four years ever again.”

Fitzmaurice says that he hasn’t really thought about the implications of graduation yet.

“I’m more of the mindset on having a good time before graduation,” he says. “It has sunk in a little though that this is pretty much it because of the job searching and my classes ending.”

As a rising senior, I’ve worked alongside, competed with, and had fun with this group of seniors for the last three years.

I’ve developed relationships and friendships with people that have made me a better and more mature person. I’ve shared memories with these people that in 30 years from now we will still be laughing over.

Whether it’s being a dentist, an executive at a sports franchise, a pharmacist, or even just raising a family in a middle class rural town, seniors should remember the lessons, experiences, and friends that they have acquired in their four years here at One Winooski Park.

“College is great time and I wouldn’t have traded it for anything,” Fitzmaurice says. “I just wish I could remember it a little more.”

Since this also will be the final installment of Ryan’s Reality (tech editor Jessie Palatucci and I will be moving up to the co-executive editor positions in the fall), I’d like to go back to my first column and reiterate the quote from Tom Petty when he said that “the work never ends, but college does.”

Well seniors, college will soon be at an end and, as the National Collegiate Athletic Association TV commercial says, you "will all be going pro in something."

Make the most of the opportunities that arise, soak up the lives that you were born to live, and good luck to each and every one of you.

Above all, thank you.