This fall is special for Matthew Rozinski. It represents the last few months the senior finance major will spend on campus.

“I do not normally look forward to this season,” he said, acknowledging that this year is different.

“I look forward to graduating this semester,” he said. “This is a big deal for me because I am the first person in this generation of my family to get a degree from college. I will also be the only one in my immediate family to have a degree. 

“This is a really big milestone seeing that I barely graduated high school,” Rozinski said. “The effort that I put into this to achieve this degree is very meaningful.”

While Rozinski said he will spend most of the fall focused on doing what it takes to graduate, he admits that he is thinking about – and making arrangements for – even bigger things with his family. 

“For Christmas, we are flying out to California to spend 10 days out there in celebration of me graduating college and as a way for my stepkids to see their dad’s side of the family,” he said. “I have always wanted to see San Diego. We are going there as well as Vegas and Los Angeles. 

“That promises to be fun because I have never been to Disneyland, and I have always wanted to go,” he said. “We are also planning on going to the San Diego Zoo. 

“All in all, what I am most looking forward to is the completion of years of hard work and being able to celebrate that with my wife and family,” Rozinski said. 

But those plans are several months away – and Rozinski said he still needs to do whatever it takes to graduate.

“I am in a routine, so it is hard to deviate from that and make big plans,” he said. “The last few years have always been school and then working with the kids through their school.”

Oh, and there’s one other thing about the season:

“I can always guarantee, I’ll be raking leaves,” he said.