It is important to be aware of the pressure that people may feel to have had incredibly productive or life-changing breaks, and of the significant barriers to these experiences.

As a girl from Florida, a place where autumn does not exist, my expectations for St. Louis’ fall were high. Little did I know that autumn also does not exist in St. Louis. We skip straight over it into winter.

It is human nature to have expectations. We all have expectations about pretty much everything that happens or is likely to happen to us every day. There is nothing wrong with that. The only time this becomes a problem is when we let our expectations cloud our perceptions of events.

Expectations. That was the theme of the student convocation address that welcomed most of us to college. In the past four years, whether our expectations were primarily to find friends, succeed academically or become student leaders (or all of the above), something unexpected happened. We grew up. As entering freshmen, we all felt like the adults we almost were.