I always knew graduation day would come, but I thought I’d be a mess when it did. I figured I’d be emotional, dramatic, maybe inconsolable for a few hours. But there is something so beautiful about how normal it all feels.
The sun still rises over Athens. Court Street still hums. Someone is still missing a deadline. Life keeps moving, even on the days we expect it to stop and stare with us.
Maybe that is the lesson. The fact that it will never come again is what makes life so sweet.
Not that long ago, I was a freshman at a high school workshop pretending I knew what strategic communication was. I was making it all up. I had no real idea what the major meant, what the career path looked like or where it would take me. I just knew it sounded interesting.
Then suddenly, somehow, I blinked, and I’m here.
If I could leave one piece of advice, it would be this: be the unicorn.
Be the person who doesn’t fit neatly into the box that people expect. Be the combination no one saw coming. Be willing to look a little different. Be the commanding woman who scares people a little. Be the diva, and if the university president scolds you for “chastising” her, wear it well. Don’t let anyone – not a professor, not a man, not anyone – convince you to shrink yourself.
I’m a public relations major working at a student news publication, and I’ve loved every second of it. Some people might say those worlds don’t go together, and I think that’s exactly why they should. Journalism taught me to ask sharper questions, think critically and care about truth. Public relations taught me how to communicate with intention, strategy and empathy. I never wanted to choose one lane when I could build my own.
In college, the best parts of life often come from unexpected combinations. I met my two best friends, Cassie Dye and Sofia Osio, who made Athens my home and every semester more fun than the last. I found a second family in student media with Jackson McCoy, Sophia Rooksberry and Alex Hopkins, where long nights, big ideas, occasional chaos and near-lawsuits became some of my favorite memories.
Know that life can get serious in an instant. My mom was diagnosed with cancer, and I watched her fight through it with a kind of strength that changed everyone around her. Then I watched her beat it. Moments like that remind you what matters and how quickly everything can change. They also remind you how many people carry you along the way.
My parents believed in me long before I knew what I was doing. My siblings, Matt, Lily and Zach, kept me grounded, entertained and honest. Andrea Lewis saw something in me early, then kept pushing me toward the version of myself I was still becoming. MacKenzie Fitzgerald showed me what it looks like to be a bold woman who leads with confidence and empathy.
The world can open quickly when you keep saying yes. One day you’re in Athens, and the next you’re at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, wondering how your life got so interesting.
I worked hard. I took chances. I had opportunities that younger me would have thought belonged to someone else. And now, soon, I’ll begin my next chapter with RTX in a role that once felt far off but now feels earned.
That’s the funny part about time. While you are busy doubting yourself, comparing yourself or trying to have it all figured out, life is quietly building something for you. Lately, I’ve been listening to “Landslide,” and I keep coming back to the same truth: change can be scary, but it can also be proof that you lived.
So, if you still have time left here, use it well. Join the thing that makes no sense on paper. Apply for the role you think is out of reach. Meet people who change your life. Care deeply. Work hard. Let yourself become someone new.
Most of all, be the unicorn.
Because the people who do things differently are usually the ones who end up exactly where they’re meant to be.
Abby Waechter is a senior studying strategic communication at Ohio University. Please note the views and opinions of the columnists do not reflect those of The Post. Have something to say? Email Abby at aw087421@ohio.edu.
