This year is my senior year, my penultimate semester on this beloved campus. At this point three years ago, I was a newly minted freshman, still figuring out where all my classes were and how to get involved with anything on campus besides marching band. Now, at the time this is published, I am 241 days away from graduating. As sad as it sounds I am looking forward to a lot of my lasts. Since it’s the fall, I am looking forward to my final Hurst Day. I am planning on forming a scavenger hunt team with my friends (if we can find a fourth person) because I want to end my experience here with a bang. I am excited for the last time I perform a theatre production here. I only joined the department last year, and my one regret is that I did not get involved sooner. I am looking forward to my last Christmas tree lighting, my last SpringFest, my last karaoke session at the Roost, my last tour that I give as an Ambassador and inevitably and saddest of all, when I write my last article for the Merciad. However, even as a senior, I am looking forward to my fair share of firsts. Coming up on Sept. 19 is the third Mercy March (and the second that I have attended), but this will be the first time that I will be able to speak at one. I am on three e-boards, but of those three, I’m new to one of them this year, so I look forward to promoting the newest club as well as the other two that I’m retuning to. This semester, I am in both my first anthropology and my first theatre class, and those have already been phenomenal courses, so I am glad that I could be a part of them. There is a lot that I am looking forward to, both old and new. There are clubs that I have never been a part of that I am hoping to attend this year, such as Mercyhurst Equality of Women (MEOW) and Black Students for Unity (BSU). I am becoming an integral part of the Senior Class Gift Committee. I am already making new friends who look up to me and ask me for guidance. Overall, I am looking forward to Carpe-ing this Diem like it’s never been Carpe-d before. To put it simply, Mercyhurst has changed my life. I have made friends, I have lost friends, I have formed bonds that I hope will last a lifetime and I am hoping that I will leave an impact on this community that will continue for many years to come. When I walk across that stage on May 13, 2023, I will smile, potentially with tears glistening in my eyes. I will look back on my four years here knowing that I truly seized my day and that Hurst is, and will always be, Home.