Seniors. In just over a week you will walk across a stage, receive a degree and begin the rest of your life.

I know, quite cliché, but if you take a moment and imagine a broader picture of your existence you will hopefully come to realize there is much more to be experienced in a life that—for most college students—is not even a quarter lived.

The truth is that most graduating students have spent virtually their entire lives in school. Around age 5 children start an educational journey that will end—assuming no trip through graduate school—around the age of 22. When nearly 80 percent of what you know has been day to day classes, a nine-to-five job that won’t follow you home and swallow your weekends is a bright future indeed.

Sadly, many of my Best Friends at Seattle University are graduating this year and all I seem to hear from them is a stream of fears, anxiety, nervous thoughts and uncertainty. This comes from friends across the solid job to jobless spectrum, with majors spanning engineering to humanities, all linked by their lack of hope for the imminent future.

It troubles me to see the people I love in pain, and my hope is that they can see the tremendous opportunity—rather than the looming risks—in graduation. Your path is not defined by the degree you have earned, let it serve as an aid. Your opportunity as a person is not encompassed by your GPA (good or bad).

The knowledge you have gained and the memories you have made can never be taken away! If you have the choice to live in hope or dwell in fear, for the love of yourself choose Hope and seize the opportunities to truly live that you couldn’t when you were a student.

As we progress from this moment to the next I hope my friends will take risks in spite of fear and dwell only in what truths and trials the future holds. Highs are defined in negative opposition to the lows in life, a person’s quest is to decide upon which extreme to fixate.

My only wish is that your proclivity to hope is as plentiful as your opportunities are; that is to say, infinite.

I leave you with a quote from the great Charlie Day; “you do not need to be fearless, just do not let fear stop you.”

Chris Salsbury, The Illustrious Copy Chief