Welcome to your senior year, class of 2016! Just three years ago we stepped out of our parents fully packed cars and moved into our new homes. We learned how to live in a tiny, cinderblock room with someone we had probably never met before and started our new lives for the next four years. Now, here we are entering our final year; that future we once imagined is now not so distant. We await what the next year will bring, a mix of emotions as this final chapter of college begins. While difficult to sum up, this list attempts to make sense of the feelings this final school year brings.

Nostalgia.

The first week back reminds you of that very first time you set foot on campus. You fell in love with the beautiful brick buildings, the green lawns, and all of the student activities going on around you. Now, everything is bittersweet: you take another moment to look at all your school has to offer because you know that your time is coming to a close. You smile at the excited freshman, remembering how you were once just as anxious walking around, hoping you didn't get lost on your first day.

Fear.

"Oh, my God, I'm a senior." At some point, we all had this thought, then quickly banished it to the back of our minds until we could no longer avoid it. Inevitably, everything must have a final chapter and it is absolutely terrifying. Soon we will enter the real world and everything will be different. Remember all of those things we said we would worry about later? It's later. If you're like me and applying for Grad School, you have this overwhelming fear that you won't get accepted anywhere. Or, you suddenly realize that all your hard work from the last three years somehow needs to amount to a job upon graduation. All of the upcoming changes are truly frightening.

Stress.

These next two semesters promise to be some of the busiest of my entire college career. Between juggling classes, an internship, and applications, I already know that I am going to be more stressed out than ever before. A pre-emptive apology to my friends and family, you will probably have to talk me out of a breakdown several times in the next few months. Senior year is going to be a busy one and it's important to not let it get the best of you.

Sadness.

It's the final year you will be a college student. This is the last year you will live with some of your best friends and stay up until 3 a.m. with them eating junk food and binging on Netflix. Senior year is filled with a lot of "lasts" and every moment becomes that much more important.

And, finally, the emotion that beats out everything else.

Excitement.

It's your senior year! You have put in three long years of hard work and you can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel. You look forward to all the new experiences that being a college senior will bring and savor every minute of them. This year is a time for change and doing everything you've always wanted but never got the chance to do. Take every moment you're given and make it count.