These are the end times of a lot of experiences.

The culmination of four years of college, one bachelor’s thesis, 24 science columns, a handful of all-nighters and countless memories made at UT will be celebrated in the coming weeks.

One emotion has dominated my thoughts and feelings as I’ve stumbled over the last hurdles that stand between that stage in Thompson-Boling Arena and me: gratitude. To wrap up this series, ‘Life Under the Microscope,’ as I would wrap up any other scientific endeavor, I’d like to acknowledge those people and drivers that have made this whole experience possible.

I’d like to thank UT Housing for placing me in the Honors Learning Community in Morrill Hall freshman year, on a floor with dozens of remarkable women who helped me grow and develop and push myself to dive into UT with abandon. Four years later, my eighth-floor girls and I swept award after award at the Chancellor’s Honors Banquet. Brilliance is apparently contagious.

Thanks are due to my many research advisers, mentors and influential professors who have given me the tools necessary to attack huge research questions and have coached me through balancing my passions and happiness with profound wisdom. You guys have helped turn a run of the mill, type-A science nerd into a young academic who is already rubbing elbows with the big names in the field of ecology as she searches for the right pathway to travel to the front of this pack.

Thank you to the readers that took the time to send me dozens of emails regarding my columns; you’ve allowed me to engage with the topics that I cover with more depth than I ever could have imagined. Thank you to my friends, family members and colleagues who have sent me the news articles that have inspired columns, and to those of you who have helped me turn my environmental rants delivered from bar stools into coherent arguments and moving opinion pieces.

I will forever be beholden to the many baristas in Knoxville’s coffee shops that have poured me a warm cup of “just keep pushing through this, one task at a time.” I’d also like to thank the bartenders that have poured me a frosted glass full of “congratulations, you’ve earned this one.” Thank you to those friends that sipped these beverages with me, comforting me with the clack of their keyboards as they too finished the most intimidating projects one section at a time, the friends that celebrated completed to-do lists with me or joined me in accepting defeat during some weeks.

Thank you to the many mellow-music artists who have produced the albums that have been the soundtrack of my college experience. These inspirational musicians can conjure up motivation from the dregs of frustration and apathy that weighed down my soul when the going got tough. And to you, the nameless runners of Sequoyah Hills that I routinely passed as I ran off all of the frustration that accumulates during a day in the life, I’ll miss your small smiles and the distinctive sounds of your feet crunching their way across the gravel. Your presence made me feel less alone.

To those of you a few years out from the nostalgic goodbyes and reflective last columns, I urge you to seek these things out in your own life. Build a mellow study playlist. Bring your friends dinner when they have to pull all-nighters in the library. Find time for micro-adventures, little chunks of time spent with those whom you love most, simply letting life sink in, finding time to laugh and unwind and recharge your soul. Seek out challenges, but surround yourself with mentors and friends that will tell you honestly when you’ve bitten off more than you can chew. Find balance, find a routine that floods your soul with happiness amidst even the darkest times. And when you’re in the middle of living it all, write about it, perhaps for The Daily Beacon.

Kenna Rewcastle is a senior in College Scholars. She can be reached at [email protected].