A few days ago, my friend informed me that summer was more than halfway over. I pretended I didn't hear her and tried to forget the incident, but unfortunately it has been eating at me ever since. As many of us head into our senior year, we are faced with the fact that our last year of college is almost upon us, and these realizations;
1. This is our last real summer.
Commence freak out. For many of us this is the last time that there will be four months off in the middle of the year (shoutout to the education majors who still have this perk). On the plus side, this could be your last summer working that crappy summer job you've been working since high school. We're on to bigger and better things!
2. Our college friends are not new friends anymore.
Many of us met our college best friends four years ago, and at that point they were new friends. Since then they've been with us for three years, six semesters, six finals weeks, two housing lotteries, three spring breaks, and countless experiences, adventures, meltdowns and milestones. These are no longer our "new friends from college," these are our real, ride or die friends.
3. The "real world" is heading towards us at an alarming speed.
Gone are the carefree days of bagging groceries or making sandwiches, most of us are on the prowl for real internships that can get us a leg up in the workforce. We have one year before it's our turn to get out there and become a working member of society (SOS), and that's probably the most terrifying idea on earth.
4. We are going to be the oldest students on campus.
All of those familiar faces that we have known since freshman year are gone, which is probably the strangest realization of all. For once we are on our own, the top dogs, the rulers of campus.
5. We don't know any of the classes at our old high schools.
The baby freshmen we knew when we were seniors in high school have all gone to prom, graduated, and are off to all different places. The next graduating class was in eighth grade when we were seniors in high school. Let that one sink in.
6. This time next year we could be scattered literally anywhere across the world.
For the past three years we have had the luxury of sharing a campus with our best friends. This time next year all of our friends will most likely not continue to be within a one mile radius of us at all times, and could be anywhere from California to India to Boston to Canada. The class of 2017 has big plans and big dreams and we're going big places.
7. This is our last real year of school.
This one is both terrifying and exciting. Unless you are planning on going straight into a graduate or doctoral program, you are most likely done with papers, tests, lectures, finals, class participation and homework. I think that I've had homework every night since 5th grade, so as terrifying it is to plunge into the unknown of adulthood, the absence of homework makes it a little easier.
8. We only have one year to complete college bucket lists!
Quick! Scavenger hunts across campus! Selfies with the president! Swimming in O'Hara Pond! Pictures in the fountain! This is the year to make some very epic memories... as long as you don't get caught.
9. We've changed a lot since freshman year.
College has given us an independence that we have definitely grown from. Many of us have found things that we are passionate about, we have realized what we want to do with our lives, we have found amazing friends, we have become more independent, and we have learned that as scary as the "real world" is, we are going to be alright.
10. We know exactly what we're doing.
By this point, we know how to navigate college. We know how to study, how to write papers the night before they're due, how to survive college parties, how to be first in line for Chicken Wrap Thursdays and how to survive finals week. This year is ours for the taking.
11. We still have no idea what we're doing.
As a freshman I remember looking up to the sophomores, juniors and seniors on campus and thinking that they were so cool and so put together and knew exactly what they were doing. As a rising senior I can officially say I am not cool or put together, and I have no idea what I'm doing. I do know one thing though, no one really knows what they're doing. Class of 2017, let's fake it 'til we make it.
