To the Editor:

Well, well. It’s nearing that time of year again, isn’t it? You know, May? GRADUATION? I understand that many of you graduating seniors are getting a little nervous thinking about the future and what lies ahead. Well, I would like to take this little opportunity to quell your fears. You see, graduating from Macalester is no big deal. You don’t have to move on at all if you don’t want to!

So many people are hung up on moving away from the Macalester-Groveland area and getting a “real job” after they graduate. You know, in the “real world” that your parents talk about? But really, why worry about all that? I don’t understand it at all. Why leave St. Paul? The Macalester years are the best years of you life. Why leave them behind?

I live at 1678 Grand Avenue, where I’ve lived since junior year. Back when I was a first-year, it used to be the rugby-party apartment. Man, those were the days. Anyway, on my way to work at Coffee News every day, I try to stop by Eclipse Records. I can always find some of my friends from the class of 2001 hanging out there. I just love Grand Avenue. My roommate works at Dunn Brothers and sometimes we have contests to see who can bring home the best baked goods at the end of the day (before we go to Spuddza for beers).

The best thing is having free Internet access at the DeWitt-Wallace Library, 8 a.m. to midnight. I love chilling in the computer lab, just surfin’ the web and eating Gobstoppers. Sometimes I look at job offerings on the Internet, but I heard that Ragstock on Midway might be hiring … It sucks that I don’t have a SPO anymore, but sometimes I go downstairs in the union just to see my old mailbox. Still there!

Macalester kids are great. And man, those first-year girls are pretty fine. Sometimes I tell them stories about funny stuff that happened when I lived in Dupre 4 West. They always seem really open and appreciative. There’s this one girl, a sophomore, who I always give free lattes to at Coffee News. She’s a philosophy major just like me.

Anyway, I just wanted to show you nervous seniors that life at Macalester does not have to end after graduation! Don’t stress, dudes. When you find something you love, stick with it. Macalester is like a home to me. I love it like my mother.

Joe McCormack ’01