Many people would agree with the statement that your years in college will be the best four (or five) years of your life. You meet people who will become your groomsmen or bridesmaids. Having grilled cheese five out of seven times a week for dinner is completely acceptable. You take classes that you actually care about. You can go out on a Tuesday night and make out with a random stranger and no one will judge you. I like to think of college as the limbo between the over-protective and over-bearing high school days, to being a real adult. Being a college student is definitely not real life.
The end of these four glorious years used to scare the crap out of me. I would legitimately have nightmares about graduating, saying goodbye to all of the people I have come to know and love and starting a big girl job. Paying bills and going to interviews seemed absolutely terrifying, and I didn't feel prepared in the slightest bit. I would watch as the seniors before me as they would continuously worry and shed many tears about leaving. It looked awful.
After being in a little funk about becoming a senior, I decided that wasn't how I wanted to spend my senior year. Worrying about the future and being sad about leaving the past behind didn't seem appealing to me in the slightest bit. So I started to get excited. I made a LinkedIn. I researched jobs that interested me. I started talking to my graduating friends about where they wanted to end up. I started looking for apartments. I even started a Pinterest board called "The Real World," which included pins ranging from "How To Store Groceries" to "Best Ikea Finds." Slowly, I began to get more and more excited of what was about to come after graduation.
Along with preparing myself for after graduation, I couldn't help but think about the things I haven't done while in college. A bright idea came to my mind: I decided to make a senior year bucket list. It included everything I wanted to do before I graduated, such as go to every bar I haven't ventured to, pull an all-nighter, and go to all of the campus events I have missed in the past. I wanted to make sure that this last year would be the best year yet, and I would leave my college city with a full heart and no regrets.
As the beginning of my senior year starts in about a week, I can't help but still feel a little down about starting my official last year of school. Of course I am going to miss living in a crazy town with my best friends, ordering pizza at 1 a.m, and being able to use the excuse "It's okay because, college." But when you think about it, this is the start to a whole new, exciting and incredible chapter in my life. Bring it on!
