Seniors enjoy 100 Days Celebration
In Maryville College tradition, the spring semester is filled with many ceremonies and celebrated customs. From the Robert Burns Dinner to Spring Fling to the Senior Athlete Award Ceremony, spring semester on Maryville’s campus is full of activities and formalities that students have come to expect and enjoy.
One such spring celebration is the 100 Days Until Graduation ceremony. An earned, special treat for the senior class, each February, the college invites all graduating seniors to a toast in honor of their last 100 days as students. It is an intimate and bittersweet occasion, often the first glimpse that change is right around the corner for many seniors.
“I remember when I was a freshman and I watched my cousin, Ashlyn Kittrell ‘15, attend 100 Days with all of her friends,” said Erin Dupes, senior. “I thought to myself ‘Wow that seems like such a long ways away; I cannot wait until my friends and I get to do that’ and now here we are, less than 100 days away from graduation, and it all still feels just as new.”
The 100 Days ceremony is always paired with short speeches and blessings to the class from the class president, past alumni, the college president. Students gather around to wait in line and take their photo in front of the infamous 100 Days sign. And for a grand finale, the students join with the college president in a champagne toast to their upcoming graduation.
All in all, the toast is a heartwarming Maryville College tradition that just adds to the difficulty that leaving this campus will be.
“One of the things that I most loved about my 100 Days celebration was the sense of reflection that it tends to ignite in most of us,” said Mark Clifford, ‘17. “It really hones in on the fact that there is a countdown on our college days, so take it all in while you can.”
The 100 Days is one of the many senior-based celebrations that the college hosts as final parting gifts to their seniors, and as each day nears closer to graduation, the memories tend to become more dear and friends tend to hold on just a little tighter. As least, until they get to come back Home to Howee once again next fall.