Posted on

The End

Hi everyone,

Welcome to my final blog post! On May 24th, I officially graduated magna cum laude with a degree in English from Holy Cross. It’s hard to believe, almost surreal–I always knew that May 2024 was coming, but it always seemed like such a far-away month and year.

But now it’s here. To paraphrase what my mom always says, try not to be sad that it’s over; be happy about how it happened.

Finals ended on Wednesday, May 15th. After a weekend away with my roommates and other friends, we returned to campus on May 19th for Senior Week. Amidst a slew of activities were two major events: a boat cruise from Boston Harbor, and a lobster dinner down in Rhode Island. On Monday the 20th, we took an hour-long bus ride to the city and boarded the Spirit of Boston, an awesome cruise ship with multiple levels. It was beautiful to see the sun set over the ocean, and airplanes soar right over us in their descent to the Logan runway.

Our lobster dinner was near Newport, Rhode Island: a lovely venue tucked into a large green valley. There was live music, horseshoes, cornhole, and volleyball! After everyone played and had some drinks, it was time for dinner: either chicken, steak, or lobster, depending on each student's preference. As a native New Englander, for me, the choice was obvious: I tied my bib around my neck and feasted!   

In the final days of the week, there was the Baccalaureate Mass, the Last Sunset on the Hill, and the Commencement Ceremony. As we welcomed our families to campus, we finally pulled on our gowns and hats. The various pins and cords I had to wear were very cool and unique: I had pins honoring the class of 2024, the 50th anniversary of Holy Cross’ coeducation, and my employment in the Dinand Archives.  I had two cords: the red-and-black one represented my membership in Sigma Tau Delta, the international honors society for English students. The other cord, which was green-and-blue, represented my participation in one of Holy Cross’ study abroad programs.

My senior portrait on the Fenwick steps

The ceremony was held at the DCU Center. Although the only other time our class had visited the venue was for our Senior Ball back in November, the arena we used was spacious and well-decorated. There was no limit to the number of guests we could bring, which I appreciated as I invited my grandmothers, uncle, and aunt in addition to my immediate family. The ceremony went off without a hitch: our speaker, employed at NASA, was endlessly fascinating, and I felt so proud seeing my friends and classmates honored for their hard work by walking across the stage.

You can learn more / see images from the commencement here, and watch the recorded livestream in full on YouTube.

I can’t deny my sadness at leaving Holy Cross. Especially this past year, I’ve felt so connected to the campus and embraced its community fully. Particularly after the struggles of the pandemic, I became more independent and self-reliant and truly more comfortable in myself than I ever have been. I came back from abroad, and reconnected established relationships, but I consider myself fortunate to have also forged new ones, across all class years. I had so many incredible opportunities, from traveling across the world to getting my essays in print. I made friendships that will last the rest of my lifetime. I not only learned and took from Holy Cross, but I truly know that I gave back to it in several different ways. 

Hopefully, the posts on this blog have documented that to the fullest. Operating this page has allowed me to self-reflect, and the deliberate nature of the action forced me to hone my writing skills even further. I hope that this effort is apparent, and that anyone in the future reading this blog will take away any advice that can make their own time on the Hill even more special.

Thank you so much!

Sincerely,
Matt
Posted on

Spreading the Written Word
My copy of Parnassus!

Hi all, 

It’s been a while! As the year draws to a close, many of the publications that I’ve been working on / are featured in are starting to be released. Sharing my written words with the campus has been one of the most valuable parts of my experience at Holy Cross.

Although I wrote some articles in the Spire during the beginning of my junior year, it was on an on-off basis; I wasn’t considered a full-time contributor. Considering that I was head of my high school newspaper, I thought I ought to be more involved. Over the summer, as I was about to come back from abroad, I decided to apply for one of the open editor positions, for the Features section. As opposed to overall news, the section focuses on the going-ons around campus. I thought that this section would be a great way in which to learn more about Holy Cross. And it was! Throughout the year, I got to interview students, professors, alums, and administrators about the new College website design, biology research in Puerto Rico, the Academic Conference back in April, the Washington program, and more. You can read some of them here! I loved getting to know campus community members better through my interviews, and to befriend students from all grades as an editor. It was great to serve in a leadership role, and it definitely improved my writing skills. 

I also served in editorial roles on the Purple, Holy Cross’ literary magazine, and the Criterion, the English Department’s academic journal. For the Purple, although I was an associate editor, I was able to use the interviewing skills I’d honed for the newspaper to help out. We interviewed the college provost, an HC alum and previous editor of the Purple, over two sessions. Some of my friends had their creative work published in the Purple as well, and that was nice to have our work in print together. 

Published authors!

For the Criterion, I was one of the three co-editors-in chief. We ran a team of editors, communicated with the authors for edits, and did formatting and layout to create an entire journal from Google Docs. We then uploaded the journal and its contents on Crossworks, Holy Cross’ digital repository for student work. People from all over the world can see the essays! It was genuinely an honor to share some incredible essays to the world–literally! You can check the issue out here!

Lastly, I contributed an essay to the Holy Cross classics journal, Parnasuss. It was a fulfilling experience to work with student editors, as opposed to being the editor, for a change, and they had some great editing suggestions for me. I got a paper copy, but that will also be on Crossworks soon. I can’t wait to see it online, and get the diagnostics of where my work is downloaded worldwide!

Now that classes are coming to a close, we have final exams, and then Senior Week, and then graduation! I think I’ll make one more post capturing all that. See you then!