Why The End Of The School Year In College Sucks

One of my all time favorite movies High School Musical claims in one of the most epic class sessions ever:

What time is it?
Summertime is finally here,
Let's celebrate
We wanna hear you loud and clear now
School's out
We can sleep as late as we want to
It's party time
Now we can do whatever we wanna do

Sure, we can all claim that the end of the school year is the best part of the year. We get to go home, see our families, and enjoy the wonderful feelings that summer brings. We get excited about the summer BBQ that we’re going to throw or bask in the smell of fresh cut grass and daylight that lasts until 9 p.m. But nobody seems to talk about how much the end of the school year sucks.

First, and arguably worst, finals. Because nothing says welcome summertime quite like having 5 tests scheduled anywhere from 7:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Nothing quite rings in the end of the school year quite like being expected to remember everything you have learned since January. And it’s not like they can be blown off either. No, no. Typically these tests are at least 15 percent of your grade –– or more. Shout out to my German teacher for making my final worth 20 percent of my final grade, you go homegirl. As if the weight of these tests wasn’t enough, you usually have to know every tiny detail from every lecture since January. I have come to despise the term cumulative, just the thought of it makes me shudder. And perhaps the worst part of finals is the lack of sleep and motivation you have to study for them. You know you need to be memorizing that one list from that lecture on February 17 at 8 a.m., but the call of Netflix is so prevalent. You know you should hike to the library and crack open those books, but it’s as if you can hear Dwight Schrute telling you to open your laptop and watch just one more episode. What’s another 20 minutes right? It’s so frustrating because you know, oh god you know that you shouldn’t but you want to so bad. It’s the classic head and the heart struggle. *Inserts Rivers and Roads lyrics here*

Finals, although annoying, are not the only reasons that the end of the school year is the actual worst. There’s no better way to wrap up the school year than to say goodbye to the people you have seen everyday for 8 months. The people you meet in college are so diverse and unique, but be careful because developing too deep of a friendship will hurt you in the end. You’re just going to have to say goodbye to some of the coolest people you have ever met. And it’ll be terrible. Just thinking about having to say goodbye to my cool friends makes my chest hurt.

I have to mention the fact that you also have to pack up all of the stuff you have acquired over the year. I wasn’t a shoe person until I came to college and since then have acquired 5 new pairs of shoes. I counted. And somehow I have to figure out how I am going to manage to cram all of my clothes, shoes, sheets, and books into my 2012 Camry. You’ve got to be kidding me.

People tell you all the time how great college is. I swear if I hear another, “The best years of your life are ahead of you,” one more time I might just:

It’s so cliché. But, I suppose, they aren’t wrong. College really has been a fun time, so fun in fact, that the idea of summer makes me sad. It’s been so great that for the first time in my life I am dreading the end of the school year. So if you happen to go into the library and hear uncontrollable sobbing, it’s probably me. Either from the fact that I know absolutely no German, that I will have to say goodbye to my friends in less than a week, that I have to stuff all of my crap into a couple of plastic bins or all of the above. So if you hear the sobbing, please, spare everyone the awkwardness and put your head down and keep walking. I might be OK.