Senior year. The year of lasts. The year of goodbyes. Just when you thought that your life couldn’t get any more stressful, it does. On top of all of your regularly scheduled classes and classwork you find yourself scheduling senior appointments, getting inducted into last minute honor societies, job searching, apartment searching, soul searching and stressing whether you’ll get a job that pays enough to cover your student loans.

But, before you do any of that, there is one teeny, tiny thing that you’ve neglected thinking about all summer. Okay, it’s kind of a large thing. This thing is the culmination of your entire college career and has the potential to affect whether you graduate or not.

That’s right, I’m talking about the senior project. It takes many forms, often times a portfolio or presentation. For my major, we are required to make a 6 to 12 minute narrative, animation, documentary or experimental film. No matter what your major, chances are you have a senior project and chances are, it is going to consume at least one of your final semesters.

In light of starting my own senior project, I’ve decided to create a list of some of my struggles in hopes that there are a few other seniors out there that feel the same way.

1. The “Holy crap, I’m a senior!” moment

Yeah you’ve known that you are a senior for quite some time now but it has only just sunk in.

2. Thinking of an idea

There are just so many topics to choose from.

3. Presenting your idea and having said idea approved/denied

Please accept my idea. I stayed up all night creating this PowerPoint/outline.

4. Totally wanting to change your previous project

You begin to see all of the flaws in your first proposal and completely changing your idea will totally solve all of your problems.

5. Emailing your professor your new proposal

You hope that the only thing they respond with is ‘go ahead’ but when you open the message you see that they wrote a five paragraph outline filled with questions that you never even thought about.

6. Starting your project

Late nights in the library/studio are only the beginning. Your roommate begins to wonder if you still attend school. Your diet primarily consists of caffeine and snacks and your Instagram starts looking less like your own and more like a Starbucks campaign.

Let’s face it, even though the senior project sucks, it can be pretty exciting to get the chance to show off all that you learned from your time at school. Unless, of course, you didn’t learn anything; then you’re screwed.