Over the past several weeks, seniors in the Schreyer Honors College have been getting a special delivery of some unopened mail.
The mail is a letter that those who entered the Honors College as freshmen in the fall of 2010 wrote to themselves as part of an orientation activity. The letters were written during the first night of SHO TIME, the Schreyer Honors College's orientation program, on August 18, 2010.
To read about seniors' reactions to their letters, click here.
Below are excerpts from letters written, in order, by graduating seniors Cori Steimling, Marvin Johnson, Jessica Paholsky, Uma Pattarkine and Dan Bloodgood:
“I hope you haven’t gone crazy but continue to meet new people and meet challenges with an open mind! Good luck when you graduate!” -- ♥ Cori/Your young/’naïve” freshman self
“Dear 22-year-old Marvin (aka Future Me aka Present You): If you are receiving this letter then congratulations! You have successfully completed college, and the Penn State system has done its job once again.”-- Cordially, Past Marvin
“I hope you have gained the confidence to go out into the real world and the knowledge to become whatever your heart aims for…I hope you’ve had the time of your life at Penn State in Schreyer Honors College every day since this day (your very first day).”-- Jessica Paholsky
“Dear Self, I’m sitting at the SHO TIME BBQ right now, and it’s just been a long day. In 2014, I hope I’m going to have my major in finance and my minors in biochemistry and molecular biology and international business. … I’ve made new friends which is great. Hopefully, it will keep getting better.”-- Sincerely, Me
“Wow, can you believe four years have gone by? Think back to that night, sitting at the table eating a pulled chicken sandwich and getting it all over your shirt because of how nervous you felt. You were so worried about leaving mom and dad and what you were going to make of your life but something told you things will be OK…like they always were. If only you could write back to the Danny in 2010 and tell him about how much you’ve learned, how much you grew, and how successful you’ve become.”-- Self