There are many things on a college student’s mind at any given moment. The four-plus years of studying, testing, essays, social life, jobs and everything in between certainly take their toll on a person. All of that is done with the hope that there is a better future on the horizon after an education is completed.

There are issues in our country that will never be resolved. The economy will always fluctuate. Our education system will always need improvement. Poverty will always be present. Even more certain is that there will be disagreement on how to solve those issues.

College students are the most necessary solution to this problem. Hope and an individual’s potential are things that are immeasurable, but a college student entering the world with a positive and anticipatory outlook on life is invaluable. Those dreams and passions are what changes the world.

Pessimism seems to be the standard outlook on a troubled world. The world cannot be fixed, so why should we even try? Why should we care about problems that will never seem to be fixed? The simple answer is people. The one thing that connects us all universally is that we’re all human beings, and we all face similar struggles in our everyday lives.

The world is filled with more challenges than solutions, and many people find themselves overwhelmed by those challenges. Failures, big and small, await every person, but in those failures are the greatest lesson. People who change and affect the world are the people who have failed the most. They learn from their struggles and move forward.

One thing I know for certain is that the world can be made a better place. I believe wholeheartedly that the students at UTSA and of this generation have the capacity to move the world forward. I believe that the world being handed over to us is one that needs strong and intelligent people who see the world from different perspectives.

Every person will die someday, and few people will ever be remembered for the amount of money that they made. Instead, the people that are remembered are the ones that impact others and change lives. They see the potential in others and build them up. Changing the world doesn’t start with some grand program or policy. The world changes by people taking an interest in others and helping them.

I’m graduating this semester, and this is the last commentary that I will have the privilege of writing for The Paisano. In many ways, I owe a great amount of gratitude to the people at The Paisano, because they have given me a voice and platform to speak many of my ideas and opinions on the world.

Many people don’t know that The Paisano is a completely self-supported newspaper that receives no money from the university whatsoever, and we’re one of the few college newspapers that are able to do that in the entire country. The Paisano is by far one of the greatest organizations at UTSA, and I would encourage anybody who is interested to stop by at a meeting. I nervously did a couple of years ago, and I quickly found out that the warmest and nicest people most certainly work for The Paisano.