I always end every semester with a top ten memories countdown, so it was only fitting that I do the same for my final blog post for Experience Iowa.

It’s so hard to narrow down which moments over the past five months have meant the most to me, but after some thinking (and excessive scrolling through my camera roll), I’ve finally picked the most memorable days/events that I’ll be thinking about as I move into post-grad life. Below, check out some of my favorite moments as a college senior and a sneak peek at my future plans this summer and fall!

Getting Published in Multiple On-Campus Magazines For the Last Time

Over the course of five months, I’ve had seven different pieces published in on-campus magazines. I had a fantasy piece and a romance piece get published in Wilder Things, an experimental romance piece published in Fools, a nonfiction piece published in Catharsis, a romance piece published in Venus, a translated piece published in Boundless, and finally, another romance piece published in Broken Clock.

I absolutely adore on-campus literary magazines, and it’s bittersweet to be published in all of my favorite magazines one more time before I head on out!

Celebrating My 22nd Birthday With All of My Best Friends

After making so many wonderful friends over the past four years, it was so much fun to be able to celebrate my birthday with every single one of them! My party’s theme was just an ugly sweater party, and I loved seeing everyone dress up, mingle, and take lots of photos which are memories that I’m going to cherish for a long, long time.

Truly, it was the best birthday party ever!

Having Multiple Galentine’s Days

Because I have so many amazing friends, I was also able to spend Valentine’s Day with double the celebration and double the love! One day was spent trying out a new restaurant with my closest friends from freshman year, while the other was spent hanging out with my neighbors. Funny enough, my neighbors and I actually found a rose while we were walking around, which I feel like is a HUGE sign!

Having so many friends always means double the celebration and that’s something that I’ll never take for granted!

Seeing Bernie Sanders in Downtown Iowa City

Iowa City has always been a hub for celebrities and politicians to visit and talk to college students and the local community. This year, I was lucky enough to be one of the last people to be let into the Englert Theatre, where Bernie Sanders was giving his speech on his Midwestern tour.

It was so cool seeing a popular politician in person and for free, and crazy enough, I actually saw him later while I was shopping since he was headed to a second location to meet with the overflow of people! That was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience that I love looking back on!

Getting My Anthology Published

This is probably the thing I’m most proud to have accomplished during my entire college career!

As mentioned earlier, I’ve been published across multiple on-campus and literary magazines, and as a gift to all the hard work I’ve done, I wanted to commemorate my accomplishments by making an essay collection! Funny enough, I started making the anthology in my Book Design class during the fall semester, and rather than letting the work fade away, I filmed some marketing material and then put it on sale for everyone to enjoy! Here’s the link if you want to see for yourself!

The incredible part of this process has been seeing the support from my community! Whether it’s my friends from home, my close relatives, or the Iowa City community as a whole, people have really come forward to support me and champion all the work I’ve done! I’m so proud of myself for having self-published an entire boo,k and I feel so lucky to hold four years’ worth of stories in one place!

Going to LA With My Writer Friends

I wrote a whole separate blog post on this experience, but just to reiterate, I went to the Association of Writers and Writing Programs Convention with my earthwords magazine team, where we got to watch author panels, browse the bookfair, learn more about literary magazines, and explore different MFA programs across the country.

I had an absolute blast going to the conference and spending quality time with my writerly friends. All of us learned so much about writing craft and the literary world, and I genuinely wouldn’t have traded that experience for the world!

The earthwords Launch Party

This is another event that I wrote a whole blog post about, but it still deserves another massive shoutout!

Having been on the earthwords staff for three years, this launch party was extra bittersweet as I officially said goodbye to all of the hard work that I’ve put into the magazine. Luckily, I’ll be leaving the magazine in good hands with a phenomenal and dedicated team, and I’m so excited to see where the legacy of earthwords goes from here!

Taking my Graduation Photos

I love it when I have the chance to dress up! But I will admit, seeing myself in a cap and gown was terrifying if not bittersweet!

I was so excited to take my graduation photos, and I was absolutely floored with how they turned out! My lovely friend, Samm, whom I met during my freshman year on Ink Lit magazine’s staff, is so talented at what he does (here’s the link to his work)! And my wonderful and charismatic friend, Katie, was the best support system that I could have asked for! I owe her so much for running around, carrying my things, and fixing my hair/hem for a full hour.

I’m so in love with how the pictures turned out, and I can’t wait to share them with all of my friends and family!

Saying Goodbye to the Tour Guide Program

Even though I’ll be sticking around over the summer, the tour guides did an official send-off for all of the graduating seniors.

The Tour Guide Program has been my rock for the past four years and I’ve loved every second of talking to prospective students/families and joking around with my tour guide friends. It was so tearful and heartwarming to hear about everyone’s post graduation plans and our senior superlatives (mine was that I would come back and teach one day which isn’t a bad idea…).

Overall, the tour guides mean so much to me, and I can’t believe I’m saying goodbye to a program that has helped me grow so much over the past four years.

Graduation Day (Even Though It Hasn’t Happened Yet!)

Even though I’m still a few days out from walking the stage, I can already tell that this is going to be my most memorable moment of college.

Getting to walk the stage with my best friends, take lots of pictures, and really relish in the fact that I’ve grown and accomplished so much over the past four years is going to be such a big moment for me, and I can’t wait to experience every moment of it!

And there we have it! My final top semester moments as a college student! Time really does fly, doesn’t it?

Future Plans and Final Thoughts

For those of you wondering what I’ll be up to, here is a snapshot of my future plans!

For starters, I think I deserve a fun and relaxing summer. In two weeks, I’ll be doing a short vacation to Portland, Oregon and then I’ll fly back to New York for two weeks. There, I’ll be seeing Tyler the Creator at GovBall in New York City before I fly back to Iowa City to spend one final summer with all of my friends.

For June and July, I’ll be back on campus doing summer tours for the Office of Admissions and I’ll officially be moving my things back to New York and my hometown. Of course, I’ll be job searching (fingers crossed that I land something by August!) and then the next phase of my life begins! As you can imagine, I’m scared, relieved, and excited, but everything will turn out as it should. I just know it.

To everyone who has read these blog posts, I hope something that I’ve written has resonated with you! Thank you for sticking with me these past four years as I’ve built a small archive of my time at the University of Iowa.

If you’re a current student, a parent, or someone just looking into the university, don’t take any moment for granted! It all goes by so quickly, and seriously, you’re going to want to savor it. For prospective students trying to decide if Iowa is the place for them, you should DEFINITELY choose to come here! These past four years have been the best years of my life, and I can’t say enough about how much love and community exist here at the University of Iowa. Seriously, come and experience it for yourself.

As always, Go Hawks, and thank you for reading!