I’m struggling to synthesize my experience at UA into one 700-word article. During my five years here, I have experienced my life’s highest highs and lowest lows. I have met some of the most awe-inspiring scholars, activists and world-changers. As a graduate student, I have had the privilege to somewhat pause “real life” and spend time thinking, theorizing and talking through challenging concepts, pushing myself to (re)consider my epistemological and ontological worldviews. I have produced scholarships that I’m proud of and have made friends I will keep for the rest of my life. I have been part of things that will have a lasting legacy on this campus.

As this semester has drawn to a close I’ve been thinking a lot about the awards I have and haven’t won, the selective societies into which I have and haven’t been admitted and the opportunities that I have and haven’t taken advantage of. I’ve been disappointed by some of those thoughts.

I’ve also been thinking a lot about what I’m leaving behind, and I’ve realize that those things are so much more important than any awards I could have won or societies to which I could have gained admittance. Those thoughts make me proud. What I’m proudest to leave behind though is a fierce and fearless feminist community, which has been an invaluable addition to campus culture. I want to pause for a moment and thank all the amazing people on campus who made and continue to make that community possible, who foster those spaces and who gave their support to me as I turned my lofty feminist ambitions into realities. This list of people would be much too long to publish, but they know who they are. Thank you.

I’m leaving behind a community of people who now have a voice on campus, who helped me find mine and who have the power to make change.

As students it’s easy for us to get caught up in the monotony of student life. We get caught up in the readings, the tests, the projects, the jobs and the social responsibilities, which are, of course, all important. But we can forget that we have both the ability and the obligation to leave campus in a better state than we found it. We have the ability to demand change from our administrators, to challenge the status quo, and to create and maintain spaces that deconstruct systemic injustices.

As students we also forget that we have the power to make all those things happen. As Alice Walker, an influential womanist thinker, scholar and writer, reminds us, “The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.”

You, the individual reading this article, have the power to do something. Students as individuals have more power than we realize and collectivized the things that can be accomplished are immeasurable. This is something I neither realized nor utilized until much too far into my academic career.

Don’t graduate college like I graduated undergrad—unsure of who you are or why you were here, without a voice. Utilize and value your time here because it is fleeting. Challenge yourself to speak up and speak out. Push your self to think critically and re-evaluate where you stand. Most importantly, recognize the power that you have within you and utilize it to change campus. Leave it better than how you found it, so that when you graduate you can look back and be proud.

I’ve read these farewell columns every year I’ve been at the University. In 2011, I read them after the completion of my sophomore year and first year at UA, unsure of who I was, why I was here, or where I was going. In 2013, I read them before walking across the stage to shake Judy Bonner’s hand, still unsure of where I was going and similarly unsure of what I had done that was meaningful while in college. Now, in 2016, I write my own farewell column as I ready myself to walk across the stage for the second time. This time, however, is different. I know who I am. I know why I was here and where I’m going. And I know that I’ve utilized what power I hold to leave something meaningful behind.

Cassidy Ellis is a graduate student in communication studies. She is the founder and past Coordinator of UA Feminist Caucus. After graduating with her Master of Arts in Communication Studies, she will begin working for the Department of Communication Studies at UA as an adjunct instructor while continuing her work in grassroots organizing.