Whether you’ve been in Greek Life all four years or just two, we all know by senior year we’ve reached a pivotal point in our academic careers. The daily stresses that plagued us freshmen year or junior year (I got you transfers) now seem laughable and, at best, trivial. Here are four signs that your metamorphosis from wide-eyed underclassmen into wise unscathed adult is now complete.
1. The Contemplation between Going to Class and Catching Up on Sleep
It’s very easy to weigh the pros and cons of going to class or sleeping when the snooze button is literally within fingers reach. You lay there in bed justifying to yourself that if you get the hours of sleep in now you will totally hit up night Powell later, but wait, you told Judy that you’d work out with her, and Kelsi wants to cash in on the #POTD (pizza of the day). There’s so much to do in a day, you’d just rather sleep the worries away.
These are no longer the days where we have the energy to pull all-nighters as we did our first quarters in college. Senioritis has kicked in full blast, and taken over our internal clock and our prioritization process, and has us thinking things like “Gosh, mapping out my entire day is an incredible feat itself, I absolutely deserve this five hour nap.” Why oh why do we do this to ourselves? The dreaded blessing and curse that is podcasts and lecture slides, that is why.
2. Thursday Nights Are No Longer Correlated with Frat Parties
It seems like only yesterday when we would gather altogether in our friend’s room, rummage through a large array of Brandy clothes, and go through at least four outfit changes until we found the perfect one. Not too much bellybutton, but just enough. A lot of forethought went into the outfits that would literally match every single other girls’ outfits parading down Gayley and Strathmore.
Now, if we’re lucky and have friends in fraternities, we escape upstairs to the living quarters, a land unpenetrated by dizzying strobe lights and the cacophony of drunken chatter. Whether because we’re too old for the GrΣΣk scene or just tired of hearing “Get Low” by Lil Jon, Thursday nights no longer correlate to frat parties. Instead, in true Seniority fashion, we round up all our 21+ homies and uber to multitude of Happy Hours in search for debauchery and letting off steam. Extra kudos if you have a Friday 8 a.m.
3. Your Daily Attire Consists of Letters and Oversize Sweaters
People tend to misinterpret our sporting of letters on a regular basis with stereotypical notions of Greek arrogance and pride, but have you ever WORN those shirts? They are grade-A comfort. The amount of Greek Week sweaters and t-shirts I have accumulated is a noteworthy feat. Getting up at 9 a.m. no longer comes with a struggle to choose outfits for a 50 minute class. Open up your drawer and BOOM! Grab any shirt in your assortment of shirts from philanthropy events, Rush, or bid day ceremonies. It doesn’t matter that you’re sporting an ’08 Bid Day t-shirt, you rock that shirt, and relish in the fact that that shirt cost you nothing; free 99 and still comfy as the day it was made. So when you see someone walking around campus in letters or someone elses’ letters, chances are, we prioritized our comfort over our trendiness that day, and it’s not a visible bid to let you know we are in a sorority or fraternity. We are humans too, and we too like to be cozy, okay? Sheesh.
4. The Looming Reality that Graduation is Near, but You’re Actually Too Wise to Worry
Despite it being our last year in college, or not (no judgment), we’ve reached a point where we are expected to be adults with a finalized mental map of our future immediately after we toss those silly hats in the air. The reality is, many of us are just as lost as we were in the beginning of college. And it’s not that were careless or indifferent of what’s to come, but we’ve learned these past four years that it’s okay to not be okay.
For many of us, we’ve not only studied hard in college, but we’ve cried, hurt, smiled, laughed, and lived hard in these four years of isolated young adulthood. We have gotten a taste of life without the strings of parental puppeteering. We know that the college experience is far more than just forcing ourselves stare blankly at textbooks; it’s a place where we learn about every aspect of our character. What makes us tick, what kind of people we love, our habits and our demons. I think it takes a lot of wisdom and thought to admit that despite having been in school for another four years, we still aren’t as wise and adult as we think. Acknowledging that we aren’t always in control and not letting this deter us from trying to reach our fullest potential is the true accomplishment, one that is more complex than an elaborate diploma. As long as we muster up the courage to stay grounded on our feet and the good grace move forward, that is all that should count, even if the blueprint of our existence is just a bit smudged.
