This is the year that you've been dreading since the moment you stepped foot on campus. As a freshman, you were nervous, yet excited, because you still had the best four years of your life ahead of you. Now, you're just confused, because where the hell has the time gone? One minute you were blacking out at your first house party, and the next, you were a college senior.
How is it possible to leave a place that holds so many memories?
How is it possible to leave a place that played such a big part in making you who you are today?
You entered college feeling anxious and unaware of the impact it would have on you. At first, you constantly kept in touch with your friends from home, updating them on your distant life, hoping that they would stay connected to you as you went down different paths. But somewhere along the way, you found your niche at school, and you made new friends, and staying connected to home didn't seem so necessary anymore. It's not because you didn't care, or that you lost touch or interest; you just created a new home, a new place where you belonged, which led you to where you are today.
Somewhere along this crazy journey we know as college, you've created a life for yourself, and that life isn't something you want to give up in nine short months. You're not entirely sure how you even made it this far, because liver failure seemed like such an inevitable outcome after your first two years; but here you are, surviving and thriving, ready to take on your final lap.
You often find yourself thinking about how far you've come over the past three years, knowing that your fourth year will be filled with some of the greatest memories college ever gave you. "Because it's senior year" will soon become the number one excuse you use for everything that may not be morally appropriate at the time, but will make for a great story in the end. This excuse will especially come in hand when you start accepting the fact that this is a year filled with multiple "last times." It's not something to necessarily look forward to, but it is something to keep in mind as opportunities approach.
When you think about college with you senior year only a week away, you realize you'll never be in a place like this again; where all your closest friends are a footstep away and getting drunk on a Wednesday is 100 percent acceptable. You are living a beautiful dream right now, and it's not something you should ever take for granted. In less than a year, you'll be forced to wake up in order to face the harsh reality of a fully functioning adult. So make your senior year last. Go out with a bang. The real world can wait. College won't.
