Senior year can be both amazing and terrifying. It means closing a chapter of your life and opening the next one. It's a major milestone that will help shape your future. It also means all the things that come along with closing that chapter, like procrasination, anxiety, and a lot of hard studying.
1. "Senioritis"
"Senioritis" is a very infectious phenomena amongst college seniors, that has many of us taking sick days, even when we feel fine. Sometimes the inner dialogue of "I don't want to" wins over the inner dialogue of "but I need a good grade." You'll be tempted to cut class for all sorts of reasons. You may decide that going to a concert is more important than going to your organic chemistry class. Or maybe your favorite movie, that you haven't seen in years came on, and you think you can afford to miss film appreciation. Your rationale says a nap is worth skipping world history. Regardless of the reason, this year has you ready to dip out of class for anything.
2. You've learned to recognize freshmen.
You can recognize freshmen purely based on the look of blissful ignorance on their face. Everything is still new and exciting to them. They have not yet been worn down by years of homework, essays, research papers, creative writing, labs, clinicals, exams, and all the other stressful situations that college hands you. You can't help but feel both slightly annoyed and envious towards them. Oh, to be young and in first level classes again.
3. You're stuck between caring too much and too little about your grades.
On one hand, you'd like to graduate with decent grades. On the other hand, you just want to graduate. C's get degrees. Then again, you'd rather graduate with honors if that's even possible at this point. But, you'd rather graduate with your sanity than on the Dean's list. But, maybe you could just shoot for just a B average. Who are you kidding, you just want to pass! But, you want to pass with good grades. Then again, is it really that important?
4. You're nervous about the future.
Graduating from college is a major step towards "the real world" and you're about to dive feet first into it. You may have held an entry level job or two, but you're thinking about the big picture now: finding a job in your field, and becoming successful at it. You're probably having some doubts that it will happen, or you may even worry about whether you'll really be happy in this field. But you'll survive it, even if you come through it as a bundle of nerves.
5. You're prepping for standardized tests and exit exams.
You're trying to get ready for those dreaded tests that determine your future. Will you do well on your tests? Will you be able to graduate? Will you score high enough to continue to further your education, if that's what you want to do? You're feeling pretty apprehensive about your tests, but you're putting in hours of studying trying to get a good grade (hopefully!)
But despite all of these things, you're going to be fine.
You can conquer it all. You'll handle your senior year, maybe not with all the poise you expected but you'll get through it. Before you know it you'll be graduating and going out into the world to thrive.
