It was alumni weekend this past week. For athletes, that meant that we got to compete with our old teammates again. For all Mawrters, it meant that we got to reunite with some of our friends who had graduated. The life of a Mawrter after graduation, be it two years down the road or twenty years down the road, is inherently interesting to everyone on campus. It’s also a little scary. What will we do once the chapter in our life titled “Bryn Mawr” (as it is in Katherine Hepburn’s autobiography) is over? Will we decide to keep going down the scholastic path, to med school or law school or some other graduate program? Will we instead decide to try our luck in the job market, to put our internship experiences to immediate use? Will there ever be another time in our lives when we will be able to watch this much Netflix?

After catching up with my friends who are currently trying to figure out the answer to all of these questions, I’ve realized that it’s never quite clear. Sometimes you figure out the answer one day and it changes drastically the next. Even those who have a plan still check the horizon every once in a while and find it completely different. They are always looking toward the future, adjusting their course and dreaming about what they could do better, how they can push the limits to become all that they can be.

At Bryn Mawr, we have time each semester to chart our path for the next few months. As I’m pre-registering for classes I’m checking that horizon again, adjusting my route based on the new goals that I have for myself and my future. I have new expectaions for myself; ways that I can be better and get the most out of my final three semesters in this extraordinary place. My friends who have graduated are doing that all the time. At Bryn Mawr we learn to look up, because you never know what might be on the horizon.

Graduating from Bryn Mawr doesn’t mean that you’ve made it; it means that you’ve just begun. Once you graduate there’s a whole host of challenges, ones that most likely won’t involve Plenary resolutions or the 7am shift at Erdman. But what we learn at Plenary will help us in law school, or even in navigating business politics, and working as part of the Erdman team is a valuable step on the way to working as a part of a functional unit in the future. What I learned from the alums is that while the point of Bryn Mawr is to prepare us for the future, the point of Bryn Mawr is also to be at Bryn Mawr. It’s important to enjoy it while it lasts, because graduation is just around the corner. But after that there’s still Sunday brunches on alumni weekend.