By Rita Brown

Graduation begins to loom over students’ heads almost immediately after they receive their acceptance letters. Classes need to be picked, majors declared, and a few roommates paired in between. It’s an easy whirlwind to become caught up in, and an even easier one to take for granted. College provides stability for students while acting as a safe haven from the big world it tries to prepare them for. No one knows this better than the current seniors who soon have to break free from its security and try to successfully navigate the big world before them.

Three of Lyon’s very own seniors offer to pass on some of their own personal insight gained over the past four years to those who, like them, will find themselves too soon crossing over the graduation podium. For three people who have so much to look forward to, they couldn’t help but look back.

“Lyon acts as a stepping stone for all of us, and I’m not quite sure I’m ready to get off!” Rachel Turner, a senior form Searcy, laughingly says. “I’m not sure what I’m going to do yet, but I’m excited because I’m prepared.”

Turner is veteran member of the campus sorority Alpha Xi Delta, and known by her peers for her outgoing and cheerful personality. She cites the resident life of Lyon College as her best asset in stepping out into the real world. “It forces you to live and get to know people you might not otherwise meet. It teaches respect and acceptance.”

Much like Turner, Levi Taylor from Melbourne is unsure of the job path he would like to pursue.

“I would like a job that has me travelling a lot, preferably to Fiji!” he said.

It’s the friends that Taylor has made here that give him the courage to begin this new stage of his life.

“I’ve met incredible people that I consider my friends here at Lyon, and that’s what I’ll take with me," he said.

Taylor is one of Lyon’s basketball star and will surely show the same dedication he does on the court as he will in the business world.

Life after Lyon will prove even harder for senior Juan Daza, as he has both a job and citizenship to worry about. Daza is a native of Cali, Colombia, and heard about Lyon through a friend.

“A friend I grew up with went to Lyon on a tennis scholarship, and I thought, hey, I could do that too," he said.

Juan plans to move to Florida and pursue a job in either finance or marketing.

“Graduation is the easy part; it’s securing the visa that’s the hard part for me, especially since marriage is out of the question!" he said.

Most importantly, it’s the memories that he’s made that make being so far away from home tolerable. “It’s the weekends you remember, the nights out with friends, and even the nights in for that matter," he said. "That’s what college is, your experience.”