In 27 days, I will don a black bed sheet with a zipper down the front, stick a fancy tasseled cardboard hat on my head, walk across a stage, shake an important man's hand, and be officially done with my undergraduate career. Everyone who is in this same boat is probably experiencing a mixture of excitement, dread, and maybe a dash of relief. But as we all begin to focus on our long term futures, it's important to not check out of undergraduate until we actually walk across that stage. Here's why:
1. Your grades still matter. A couple weeks ago, I completely forgot to do my physics homework because I was filling out big kid job applications. In my mind, landing a career trumps most other things, including homework. But the thing is, this semester will still appear on my transcript, which will follow me around for years to come. We all still have to try this semester, regardless of how little we might actually care.
2. You might not see a lot of your classmates ever again (ever). The first time I had this realization, I was getting drinks with a friend who is hoping to go to law school in Scotland. And while I think that is so amazing and brave, I felt a twinge of guilt that, since our days of spontaneously hanging out are so numbered, I should spend as much time with her, and all of my other college friends as possible. After college, we won't run into our friends every day; we'll have to make time.
3. Lasting impressions on professors can set you up for long-term success. Just like maintaining good relationships with your friends, maintaining professionalism with teachers is still really important. If you ever need a letter of recommendation, you better make sure that they'll actually have something positive to say about you, so when you skip class or don't participate, you're really getting in your own way.
4. All your clubs and organizations? Yeah, they still need you. This one is most frustrating for me. The great thing about being a senior member of any organization is that you set the example for the younger members, and for that reason, you have an impact on that organization that could potentially last years after you leave. That impact could be one of focus and progress, or it could be one of laziness, disorganization, and general screwing around. If you ever cared about the organization you joined as a freshmen and are still in, you need to stick it out to the very end, because at that point, it's about more than just you.
5. Your college days are numbered, and eventually, you might regret wasting them. At my summer internship, I asked a lot of my coworkers for advice as I finish college, and the one thing everyone kept repeating was to enjoy my time in college, because there's nothing else quite like it. Let's face it: you have an entire lifetime to watch Netflix. It's such an easy thing to do when we're all stressed out, and a lot of us are socially anxious and introverted. That's okay. But maybe, before we graduate, we go do something we've never done before, but have always wanted to. You know, carpe that diem, and all that. What are the stereotypical experiences of a student at your school? Have you done all those things? Maybe it's finally time to give them the good ol' college try.
At the end of the day, I think senioritis comes down to deciding that, because we're older, and almost done with school, we're too good for things. We're too cool to care to show up. That's an attitude that we can't have for long, or it will bite all of us in the ass. So I think we all need to actively try to not let senioritis sink in. We still need to function as college students and make the decision that we are not too good to be leaders and good examples, and we need to stick with that decision until Graduation Day.
