Erin F.

Photography by John Tropeano

If you are reading this, you might be wondering where you’re heading next—a position I was in not too long ago.

If you had told me two years ago that I would be here, I would have been quite surprised. Even today, I still am. Yet, I would have been more confused because two years ago I was not a student here at Villanova University.

I may not have chosen this institution at 16 or 17, but I am incredibly grateful that I chose it at 21. As a transfer student proudly holding the Wildcat name, I want to shed some light on the “messy” journey I took to get here today in the hopes that it offers some guidance for the unknown that lies ahead.

Now, you may be surprised by this next part—as I am a business graduate—but I’d like to share my favorite poem by Emily Dickinson. I came across these words during a time when I felt weighed down—acutely aware I had more questions than I did answers and wandering along life’s path and stumbling without much grace.

This is a time you may come to understand if you have not already. I was grappling with the simple and profound question: What’s next?

Dickinson writes:
“Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,"

I read these lines for the first time in the fall of 2022. I was a 21-year-old junior at another university, sitting in the quaint coffee shop where I spent most of my mornings. It was this day I found myself rereading those words, and I’ve come back to them time and time again.

Before that moment, I’d always thought of hope as something fleeting—something that we have at times and lose at others. But her words opened a new possibility, something I’d never considered before and haven’t forgotten since. She suggests hope is always there, it does not come and go as it pleases. The question is not whether hope exists, but whether we’re able to hear its tune, or if we’ve dimmed its voice.

I mention this poem because it speaks to the uncertainty that many of us are feeling as we conclude this chapter. It is this uncertainty, this sense of not knowing where the path may take you or whether you’re making the right choices that I've come to know well as a transfer student. And today, I can reassure you that I absolutely love the way this path has unfolded.

When people ask me why I transferred so late into college, I often say, "Because putting off happiness is not a lesson I wanted to learn this early in my life." And that’s the message I have for you today: Make your life your own. Yes, it will be messy. Yes, it will be hard. But above all, it will be remarkably beautiful, because it will be yours.

Hope is a tune I hear in every one of you, and it will never leave your side. I promise you that.

Erin F., Villanova University

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