Five seniors were nominated to speak up about lessons they’ve learned during their time at TCU as part of Senior Speak Up Tuesday night.

Topics for Senior Speak Up ranged from the more serious life lessons one student learned from her her late mother, to letting personal passion be a lifetime occupation, to life as a non-traditional student.

Senior Ryker Thompson talked about how him losing the SGA Presidency opened up options for him to follow his passion for diversity.

Senior Strategic Communication major Madeline Peña spoke up on dry shampoo and realizing her overuse of dry shampoo directly correlated with trying to cover up pain in her personal life.

“It’s a good thing when used in moderation but it’s a symbol of how we can cover things up in our lives that are harder to talk about,” said Peña. “It’s also a symbol of being able to clean things up and being able to condition, and being able to talk about the things that are hard.”

Senior Year Experience Director Chuck Dunning said stories like Peña’s are not uncommon for this event.

“Often the stories that are told by our students are: unexpected things happen and you can try to plan everything out but the biggest lessons that you will learn along the way are going to be those that you don’t expect,” said Dunning.

Dunning said embracing the harder, unplanned experiences is a huge part of what it takes to get the most out of the experience TCU has provided.

Senior speakers are nominated in the fall semester by faculty or peers, then have to submit one or two ideas of what they’d want to speak up about to a selection committee. The event is annual, so any rising seniors who are interested in participating in the 2018 Senior Speak Up should speak up about their interest to their faculty.