Now that final grades have been entered for most everyone, the fall semester is officially over. Thank goodness. I honestly thought this one would never end. Every fall semester has some way of finding even more ways to leave me mentally, physically, and emotionally drained. When it is all said and done, I really do appreciate everything the past semester has given me. I've learned lots of lessons and gotten further in my academics, but here are a few things that I will not miss from this past semester.
1. The happy feeling of going back to school, but then remembering it's school.
This gets me every single time. I get so excited to start a new year back at college and see all my friends again. This feeling, however, fades quickly. I get so motivated to make it an amazing semester when I sign up for all my classes, but then the classes actually begin and the motivation is squashed. You know what I'm talking about.
2. Lack of sleep.
If you have not experienced sleep deprivation while you've been in college, kudos to you. I have learned that the harder I try to be in bed by a certain time, that never actually ends up happening. When you try to cram so much into your schedule, sleep always seems to be at the bottom of the priorities list. All I know is that I am a huge fan of nap time now, whenever I can manage to squeeze one into a crazy schedule.
3. Not ever being able to see my friends.
As we all move up in our classes for our undergrads, our schedules seem to get even busier. A lot of people start to tackle internships and new jobs, while still managing everything else. Also, whenever your friends have different majors and you all have your gen eds out of the way, you never see each other during the day. The struggle of trying to balance school and work by yourself is tough enough, but trying to make your schedules match up with your friend's schedule is an even bigger nightmare.
4. Semester-long projects.
This should be self-explanatory. I will never ever say that I miss doing semester-long projects. Yes, the satisfaction of turning in such a lengthy, exhausting assignment is an amazing one, but I don't want to feel that over and over again. I don't like even thinking about it. Next.
5. The freaking election.
This is probably the thing I will not miss the most about this past fall semester. A lot of us got to vote for the first time in a presidential election, which was awesome. However, I was beyond over that freaking election by the time the debates started up. I am fine with leaving all of that in the past, even though it will be affecting our near future. Now we just need some positive thoughts and optimism for our country for 2017!
6. Cumulative finals.
This one should also be self-explanatory. The minute I walked out of those cumulative finals, I threw the thickest stack of note cards you've ever seen into the trash. Now I know that cumulative finals aren't specific to this past fall semester, but I am so far over them and will not be missing them at all.
7. All of the couples that got engaged.
Now, this may sound slightly harsh to say, but holy freaking crap so many people got engaged this past fall semester. Seriously, I think the record for most engagements in one week was for five different couples that I knew. I am not bitter at all and I do not want to put a damper on anyone else's happiness! Personally, I am just trying to make it through school before I can even fathom that part of my life. Yikes.
Yes, I do realize that most of these things may resurface in the spring semester of 2017. However, it feels good to let go of that semester and just be home for a while. Let the relaxation be a reward for all of the ass you kicked in the past fall semester of 2016. In the end, all of the stress and hard work was well worth it. Be proud of yourself and go into the next semester knowing that you'll do even better than the last.
