I have to admit, I have never been overly resilient. Never been too adept at bouncing back from traumas or losses.

But, after nearly four years at Eastern, I can say my resiliency is sturdier than ever.

In my final column, I could give you a string of things you should do while you’re in college, can’t miss things you should involve yourself with, watering holes you should get annihilated at, but I won’t.

One of the most imperative things I’ve thought students should seek to strengthen during their college years is their resiliency.

After losing both of my grandparents last November within a week of each other, combined with an undeserved grade and the stress of yearbook work, I found myself initially selfishly drowning in self-pity.

But you don’t build resiliency, unfortunately, when things go right; when everything is cut and square. You don’t become a thick-skinned, mature person by perpetually clinging to security and being self-indulgent.

If there’s nothing else I’ve observed over the last four years, it’s people seem to always get a wake-up call, so to speak, in their life in due time.

Whether it’s watching helplessly as your life flashes in front of your eyes as your car spins off the slick roadway when you’re driving 90 MPH on I-57 or you lose a beloved relative or family member,these traumas and tragedies usually make people reevaluate how they are leading their life and their perspective on how they are spending or wasting their time. These type of events send a subtle message you have to change. Sure, all experiences shape how we live, but it seems the most painful ones are the ones that make sharp indelible impressions on us.

As most seniors can attest this time of year, the job application process can be quite discouraging, with the mounds of rejection letters or responses piling up. But the more nicks and bruises you take to the ego the less sour of a taste rejection will leave in your mouth.

When all too much goes wrong, we often reevaluate our lives by asking ourselves questions, questioning the direction our lives are headed.

So-called wake-up calls shift our focus. They prompt us to make a conscious effort to excavate the petty things in our lives, the things that keep us down, and help us focus on the people we care about most and scrutinize our routines more closely.

In a sense, people don’t seem to learn until their burned. For instance, not until a student’s grade point average drops from 4.0 to a 2.0 does the student panic and realizes he has to pick up the slack.

No one wants to relinquish control, often because we’re afraid of what life’s going to deal us. But allowing yourself to get crushed by the rigors of daily happenings ultimately is what seems to trigger change in us. Essentially, if we don’t put ourselves out in the classroom or the workplace to possibly be vulnerable and ridiculed, or if we cowardly hold in our opinions, we are shortchanging and not even allowing ourselves the possibility of developing resiliency.

Of course, everything is easier said than done. We all have regrets that haunt us or perpetually gnaw at us. Too bad going through four years of college being a perfect student grade-wise doesn’t determine our resiliency.

So, if you have a few years left at Eastern try to put a positive twist on the adversity you face and remember you’ll probably come out a more centered, levelheaded and resilient person for enduring it come graduation day.