Second semester seniors will be able to relate to each of these moments.
The moment you realize you are going to have to wake up at 7 a.m. for the rest of your life. Besides first semester freshman year, when your schedule is made for you, college students are given the freedom to make their own schedules. The ability to wake up at noon everyday and still be early to class, is a concept post college graduates miss far too much while struggling to keep their eyes open during a 8am meeting.
The moment you eat by yourself on campus because you honestly don't give a f*&k anymore. For the majority of a college student’s life at school, finding someone to eat lunch with is higher on the priority list then getting good grades, calling your mother, and breathing. However, once senior year hits, you just don’t care anymore.
The “what the hell am I gonna do for the rest of my life?” moment. A moment far too many college seniors face on a weekly basis. While you may be confident with the major they you’ve studied, what to do with that major is a whole different story. College life is simple. You wake up, go to class, sometimes get drunk, and then go to sleep. Post graduation that routine turns into something like this: You wake up, go to work, sometimes watch Netflix, and then go to sleep. This concept is terrifying to many college seniors, and I don’t blame them.
The moment you realize you are never going to see any of these people again. For four years, college students meet, and develop relationships with all different types of people. These are people you shared some of the best moments of your young life with, but 95% or more of them will slowly become just Facebook friends who are scattered across the county. You will not care what they are doing next weekend.
The moment you realize it’s not going to be as easy to meet friends in the real world. College is a time when you’re surrounded by thousands of people that share so much in common with you. It’s a really easy time to meet quality new friends. For many college students, post graduation results in moving back into their parent’s house. The only new person you meet then is the neighborhood mail man who delivers student loan bills.
The moment you realize you have less than 3 months left at college. The most dreaded moment in any college student’s life. The moment you realize you are on their final stretch. The final countdown. Better make it count because the “real world” is quickly approaching. Students handle their last few months in different ways. However, no student can deny the feeling of defeat on what some consider should be the most rewarding day of their lives, graduation day. Wait until your parents drop $60 getting your diploma framed as a “gift” to hang on your wall that will unintentionally serve as a constant reminder that the fun is over.
The moment you laugh out loud when you hear the birth year of the incoming class and mutter something like “people born that year can already drive?”
The moment you look at a freshman and then look at yourself and you realized that you’ve gained some weight. A high school day ended with a sporting practice. A college day ended with a buffet meal and (depending on the time of the year) either an unhealthy exam cramming session or various unhealthy leisure activities your body hates you for.
The moment you realize that you’re wise enough to skip the unbelievably crowded rec center/gym the first 3 weeks of each semester. You know damn well that over half those people will soon give up on their feeble attempts to stay in shape.
The move-out moment when you leave 90% of your furniture in the tree lawn for the garbage man. Just a couple weeks ago they were the pieces of furniture “that really tied the room together” but now you see all the holes and stains and totally get why your mother wouldn’t sit on anything when she’d come to visit.
