By: Austin Bauer

It was one of those moments that you know is going to happen, but you still don’t quite know what to expect.

You get in line and shuffle on through. You make your way onto the stage. And then just like that, it’s over.  

You’re graduated.

With a simple walk across the stage, my journey of the past four and a half years came to an end.

Admittedly, I don’t quite remember the walk across the stage. My heart was pounding too loud and I was pretty focused on making sure I didn’t trip or do anything embarrassing (I was the very last one in line, so I had to make sure winter commencement didn’t end on a clumsy note).

While walking across the stage remains fuzzy in my memory, I know that the four and a half years leading up to it won’t be.

My time at Western was not at all what I expected it to be.  It was so much better than I ever thought it would be.

I never thought I’d have the opportunity to travel across the country, to the Pacific Northwest, our nation’s capital, or and even overseas.

I never thought I’d briefly cover student government, much less a presidential campaign in Iowa, brush up against real Secret Service agents or witness a sincere act of humanity when CNN’s Chris Cuomo picked up a glove a lady dropped on the ground.

I never thought I’d crawl in a wild cave or fly for the first time. I never thought I would see two of the four existing copies of the Magna Carta.

I never thought I’d present my own research at academic conferences. I never thought I’d learn all the things I did from some of the most brilliant people I have ever met, both faculty and student alike.

Perhaps more importantly, I never thought I’d meet the amazing people I did who made Western a home and my time spent there a treasure worthy of a griffon’s guarding care.

But I did.

As I have said before in another publication that is near and dear to my heart, I believe Western really is a place where everything is possible and I’m thankful for the opportunities it provided for me. I’m hopeful that those who come after me will feel the same.