Summer is officially reaching its end point, and school is coming up scarily fast. For some, the past few months were just a typical college summer. For others, it may have been a flash that came to a sudden halt, and also more on the sad side. Those who felt as though they were cherishing what used to be an average middle-of-the-year off to foster a more meaningful time of what now feels like a dwindling interval, are usually those entering their last year of college —or are otherwise experiencing the last summer before an entirety of new summers.
Knowing that you’re going to enter the last year of what just seemed like the beginning of something huge not too long ago, is a phenomenal appreciation. Homework turns into more memorable tasks, time with friends becomes more limited, yet worthwhile and meaningful, as you prepare to explore a whole new kind of independence afterwards.
But you should actually use what you’ve learned in the past to plan accordingly so you have more time to enjoy your last year. Keep in mind that while senior year may seem crazy at times, you can’t let it get the best of you because it's nothing compared to the the challenges that lay ahead of us in the real world. Needless to say, senior year is a great determiner of how you might be able to handle tough real-world situations. Below are some of the many things seniors should do to maximize the last, and best four years of their life.
1. Meet as many people as you possibly can.
Ever-lasting friends from college will be the thing to bring back great memories decades after it, so try to spend as much time with them as you can, because if they’re from another area you may not see them for a while after graduating. In your last year you'll truly realize that making friends in college was a better decision than you previously thought was just for fun. They helped shape you in college, find who you are, and motivate you. College pals will be one of the big parts of college that helped you make it. Some will even be lifelong friends. So senior year isn’t the year you can’t continue to make new friends, or the year that you should avoid them more just because you’re the ultimate upper classmen. Even if it is your last year, if you make new friends in addition to hanging out with old ones, that's still enough time to make some extra life-long friends or simply that many more memories.
2. Be the most open to opportunities.
One of the great things about senior year is that you aren’t taking any redundant classes that test skills you don’t like or those that don't directly relate to your major. Come senior year, all the work is generally the same application of skills that all tie to your major. This means that there’s room for you to explore other areas of skills you may have never tried before or never been able to. It could be something that enhances your current skills, or gears toward a whole different direction. If you never did, join clubs, go to university or local events, and go to new places around town. Regardless, you will always benefit entering the real world with just extra knowledge than you would have from just classes in college.
It’s better to find something you wish you had done earlier, but still got to experience while you still could, than to finish school and wish you had done it at all. For me, I joined my University’s Ski and Snowboard club a bit later than I would have liked to, but I am glad I still got to enjoy it because it’s all about quality over quantity. Think of it as entering a new year as an experienced freshman: feeling reckless but knowing the right way to do it without messing up.
3. Live it up like you're a freshman again (but a more experienced one).
Contrary to popular belief, it's not a bad idea to go out more often or the same as you have before. College is the one time you can let loose and do whatever you want on the weekends. You have everything you need usually within walking distance. It's the place where you're around everyone around your age, all in walking or short driving distances, who are all going through the same thing as you. And you will miss living this life in the real world.
So go through this year open-minded and always feeling adventurous, instead of coming back to the same-old and not being open to as much because you feel as though you've already done most of it. You can re-live the freshmen year, but with a much better idea of what to do and what not to do, and with a different perspective and more experience with the fun-filled and sometimes crazy college lifestyle. Senior year can be just as memorable as freshmen year!
4. Recognize the benefit of being a senior.
As you near closer to graduation, you appreciate college more and more. From freshmen year to the end, your appreciation towards it all almost forms a giant U shape. You go into it so excited and grateful to be in college, then as you adjust to it all you view it as just the ordinary. Later, as you enter your junior year, then your senior year, you remind yourself to appreciate it again like you did when you first came into college, because you realize how fast it's going by. Having that perspective again, but in a stronger sense knowing it’s your last chance to have the incredible experience, will help you make your last year the best it can be.
5. Build from your mistakes.
We’re all made mistakes in college. Some of us, more than others, but everyone has at some point or another. Whether by homework, not studying enough, or even staying out too late the day before an 8 AM, It’s almost impossible not to. However, every year we come across new challenges. We usually enter a new year of college thinking so much about how it will be different and looking forward to revisiting old memories and friends that we forget to reflect on our past mistakes that hindered our ability in college and change our ways. There’s always something we can improve on every year, and each one requires a more advanced application of our skills. It's not all that bad though, as we won’t exactly have to apply the same homework-then-party plans in the real world.
Look at a new semester as New Year's: aim to enter it with at least one new goal but actually try to stick with it. I think New Year's resolutions get forgotten so easily because they're thought out more so for fun and pressure to do an annual has-been event, but if it's something school related that's more impactful, such as thinking positive, study for an extra hour a day, or go to bed earlier for accomplishment than you might see it as more than just a resolution, and stick with it easier.
Enter your last year with not just your advanced knowledge and hard-working ethic, but with more enthusiasm than ever and with greater pride. If you worked the way you should have in prior years, you will be able to apply them to complete the more intensive work your last year and instead use the extra time you have to go out and make the most out of the opportunities you have in college that you won’t have anymore afterwards. They say college is the best four years of your life, so really make it worthwhile. Don’t look at senior year as the end, or the part where you can't, look at it as the easiest in a way because it is now. Good luck to all forthcoming seniors this year and create the best final chapter you can!
