I’m William Repetto, a first-year graduate student at Villanova University. This is the “‘Cat in the Stacks” column. I’m your ‘cat. I’ll be posting about college life, about learning and growing here at Villanova, and, of course, about the Falvey Memorial Library’s role

What a year, Wildcats. We began way back in August with an invite to a simple cup of ’cat-feine. Since then, we’ve seen the visit of a Pulitzer Prize winning author, the opening of a new reading room, and the announcement of a new round of fantastic Falvey scholars.

I may be a grad student, but I can procrastinate like the best of them to bring you this week’s ‘Cat in the Stacks.

And these are a few of the things that happened only here in the Falvey! In the great outside world, which measures years from January to December instead of the time between graduations, a tumultuous election cycle ended with an unlikely presidential victory, one sports team ended a 108-year championship draught and another came back from a huge deficit to inflate their Super Bowl pedigree.

Whether or not you were personally invested in any of these happenings, or if you were personally involved at the events in the Falvey, you too have had some great experiences this year and have probably undergone myriad small transformations each day. The big transformation, of course, comes in the next couple weeks when first year students become sophomores, and sophomores become juniors, etc.

The important thing to remember, even though we’re turning the page on another academic year, is that the lessons learned and transformations you underwent remain important as you move on to the next stage of your life. Even if the person you became is vastly different than who you were at the outset of the year, the changes themselves define who you really are at heart.

Life, as we know, is that thing going on all around us everyday, those events to which we must respond emotionally, inside, in our own personal way. As the challenges shift, and in some sense get more challenging, we adapt our responses. At the core, however, we remain the same person: the same person who overcame the challenges of our first year at college, the same person who loved and lost sophomore year, the same person who buckled down and became dedicated to a career junior year, and those memories of senior year will never dissipate.

Speaking of responding to challenges, take a look at how Hunter responds to Madeline interrupting her workflow.

As we come to the end of this academic year, with only one ’Cat in the Stacks left for the semester, I’d like to take the chance to remind you that the Falvey Memorial Library staff is here for you every step of the way. Whether you need a place to decompress over coffee with friends, a place to zone in and study or the resources to get that studying done, the Falvey looks forward to helping you take the next steps.

Article by William Repetto, a graduate assistant on the Communications and Marketing Team at the Falvey Memorial Library. He is currently pursuing an MA in English at Villanova University.