Lana Altunashvili ’27 is a prospective international relations major. She is a James Monroe Scholar and a member of Club Tennis. Contact her at laltunashvili@wm.edu.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own.
Three months and some change ago we all left the College of William and Mary, uttering the phrases “see you in August” and “keep in touch.” Well, here we are at the beginning of another academic year with careless summer days behind us and long, extremely long evenings at the Earl Gregg Swem Library ahead. Before we plunge into the endless pit of uncertainty called First Day of Classes though, I wanted to talk about some things I learned this summer. Now, I’m not saying I will remember these lessons next month, let alone this entire year, but it’s nice to have at least some wisdom going into my sophomore year. Summer was everything and nothing, as it so often is — it was hard but invaluable, sometimes fun and other times boring: reflective, forgetful, absolutely insane. But listening to “In My Life” by the Beatles right now, I see that things are much simpler than we make them out to be.
Surprisingly enough, I’m not from the United States (I know it’s crazy, my last name sounds really American). So, the minute I finished my exams, I packed up my suitcases and flew back to Georgia (a country in the Caucasus and an unfortunate coincidence of nomenclature). There is this thing about leaving home that most students will relate to, whether international or not — but life back home is constantly changing whilst also being at a standstill. It becomes overly clear when you’re in familiar places with people you know like the back of your hand and suddenly you realize there are hidden corners that have spawned out of nowhere; things your friends have done or gone through without your knowledge. You realize that you know some past version of things as opposed to the updated one and sometimes it hits hard. Though, I think there’s a point of comfort in knowing that there will always be something new to discover about your hometown, your childhood friends, the world in general and lastly, about yourself. People and places always change, but that doesn’t mean summer needs to be some sort of nostalgia-inducing, painful time. The world is full of questions and unknowns; wouldn’t you want to try and answer at least some of them?
Another thing about my summer was that I, like many of you, participated in some sort of summer research and internship. Now let me just get this out of the way: internships and research projects are amazing opportunities to get to know new places, to explore career options, to network, to improve so many skills you would otherwise never have had the chance to develop. That being said, “summer duties,” let’s call them that, are double-sided. I did not expect to be as tired as I was two months later at the end of July. But I realize now, this is not because of the internship or the research, but rather my inability to accept change. Last summer, before my freshman year of college, was the most carefree time I had ever experienced in my entire life. No stress of further finals, our grades were in. All that I really had to worry about was getting the right sized bed sheets for my dorm. The summer was full of daily hangouts with friends, doing nothing and everything all day, going to amusement parks and playing games. As naive as it sounds, I wanted this summer to live up to the last one. So, between the work, the research, the meetups that would go until 3 a.m. and everyday stress, I was done. Most of my energy had been successfully sucked out of me. My point is that you shouldn’t overwork yourself if you have the privilege of doing so. Don’t set unrealistic expectations, don’t expect everything to be the same, because it won’t be. And you never know, it might even turn out to be better.
Speaking of better — I should probably mention the “grass is always greener” argument. Now that I think about it actually, maybe that is the one real lesson I learned this summer — the grass is always greener on the other side. Despite really wanting to go home during the semester, I ended up really missing the College. I knew I would miss my friends, of course, I’m not heartless. But there seems to be something about the College that grows on you with time and you end up reaching for it when away. We always romanticize things we don’t have or things that we’ve already lived through so much, we fail to appreciate the things we do have and the moments we’re living right now. We reminisce over the days when we knew every single detail of our best friends’ lives, while now all we get is one phone call a week; we make an effort to see our friends every time they go out because we want this summer to be like the last; we are tired at the end of an internship, but if we didn’t have it, we would feel unaccomplished; we love spending time with family, but the minute we see someone traveling, we wish we were doing that instead. Everything is a double-edged sword.
Classes start in a week, and I have no idea how everything is going to go. The only thing I do know is that I’m excited to see my friends. I want to see what’s changed, I want to be caught up on the endless summer lore, I want to get ice cream from the Sadler Dining Hall. Like most people, I’m also scared of changes, but maybe these changes aren’t ones to be feared but embraced. Maybe, if the semester doesn’t live up to our expectations, it’ll exceed them. And just maybe, things will be much better than you ever expect them to be.