Saturday’s School of Foreign Service graduation will be the 15th Georgetown commencement ceremony I’ve attended.

I worked for two years as an intern at the Georgetown University Protocol Office, and one of my duties was helping at the commencement ceremonies. I’ve seen them all, the undergraduate and the graduate, so many times. I’ve heard the same speeches recited, the university charter read, the band cued for the singing of the alma mater that no one ever knows. I have fond memories of hours spent setting up flags in McDonough Gymnasium, running through Healy Hall in heels at 9 a.m. to obtain a Diet Coke at the request of the speaker and hanging out in the audiovisual tent between ceremonies.

Even as a freshman, commencement was a fitting way to end the year; it was a reminder that four years does not last forever, that it would soon be my turn to walk across that stage. Even during the long hours that characterized my life during commencement season, it was cause enough to reflect amid a lifestyle that had me always moving forward without looking back.

It was this reflection that prompted my resolve to spend my last year on campus more connected to the Georgetown community as a resident assistant. While most of my classmates signed leases and furnished Burleith townhouses, I moved back into my freshmen dorm in an odd occurrence of déjà-vu. The floor meetings, cookies in the common room and quiet hours that most only associate with their freshmen year became a defining part of my senior year.

Working for Residence Life has put me in a unique position to experience the diversity of Georgetown. I’m not speaking of the international or religious diversity that the Office of Undergraduate Admissions brags about, but rather the unlikely combination of utterly different personalities in a single place. The ROTC cadet who lives his life with a certainty and intensity that few of his classmates possess, the unexpectedly compassionate student athlete, the quiet and studious biology major who has an inner strength that no one would expect – all of these individuals came together to form an unexpectedly unified floor. For me, this has been what makes Georgetown a special place: the people who form it and their compassion for one another.

There certainly have been times this year when I’ve been disenchanted by a student’s sense of entitlement or acts of disrespect. RA’s are not always popular in freshman dorms, after all. But time and again, my residents restored my faith by exemplifying what makes Georgetown great – whether by baking a birthday cake for a resident they met only two weeks ago during move-in or by showing up en masse to support a floormate at the first lacrosse game of the season. The doctrine of men and women for others at times seems to be a daunting one, but perhaps it is as simple as being men and women for one another.

If I were to pick the most important lesson I learned from ResLife (and there have been many), it would be this: Don’t take yourself too seriously. Icebreakers are only lame if you think you’re too cool to do them. Finger painting makes for an awesome program whether you’re two or 22. Returning to a freshman dorm as a senior and watching my residents come to call Georgetown home has been the most incredible opportunity to reconnect with this lesson.

I have no doubt that my residents will go on to many, well-deserved accomplishments. If I fear anything for them, it’s that they may neglect the little things along the way: the fun of finger painting and blowing bubbles, the simple amusement of tongue tattoo fruit roll ups, or the times spent staying up late into the night talking about nothing. If I return to watch them graduate in May of 2013, I hope that they will tell me the same thing I’m thinking now: Freshman year was amazing, but college only got better. I can’t wait for what’s next.

Jessica Kuntz is a senior in the School of Foreign Service, a Fulbright fellow, the vice chair for external affairs of Lecture Fund and a resident assistant.