If you think being a freshman is hard, try being a senior!  Every year in college comes with a new set of challenges, but the realization that this is in fact our last year of school before the real world attempts to eat us alive, is a definite contender for the hardest challenge we’ve faced to date.  If you’re anything like me, you too are going through this cycle of emotions:

First comes excitement.  Like everyone else, even seniors get excited for the first day of school.  There is nothing better than finally being reunited with friends that we haven’t seen in a few months.  On the first day of school us seniors set our expectations high, because we rule the school now, and it will be the best year of our lives.

Until the second emotion sets in, fear.  At this point, we have just realized that this has to be the best year of our lives, because it is our last year of college and there is nothing scarier than that.

This emotion usually starts consuming us once we see the incoming freshman class on campus and actually realize how old we are.  Meanwhile, we have professors talking to us about adult jobs, emails mentioning graduation, and if you are living off campus, maybe even bills to pay. By now, we are in full freak out mode.

So we deal with our fear the way any college student would, we enter a state of denial.  Maybe if we don’t talk about the fact that our college experience is nearing the end, it won’t actually happen.  We put off all of our newfound adult responsibilities and hit the nearest happy hour.  We show up at a house party knowing that we are the oldest in there by about two years, but do we care? NO.

Why? Because we are in denial of the fact that we are seniors and loving every minute of it!

Which leads to the next phase of the cycle, regret.  There is no doubt in my mind that senior year will bring about a substantial amount of regret.

At first we will be regretting that we didn’t take school serious enough, probably around the time we start applying for jobs and going on interviews.  And then we will regret that maybe we took school too serious, and that this is the last year it will be acceptable to stay up all night and sleep all day and show up to class in our pajamas and we will be wondering why we didn’t take more advantage of that the past four years.

But eventually the cycle will come full circle, and excitement will set in once again.  Once we realize that college has prepared us for the real world the fear will subside.

We will be ready to move on from the place we have grown to call home and while it will be sad, it will also be so exciting to start a new chapter of our lives.  Sure, by society’s standards we will be official adults, but with more responsibility comes more freedom and the fun is really just beginning!

So seniors, as you are transitioning from phase to phase in this rollercoaster of emotions, just remember we are all right there with you.

We are all facing the same challenge, just like those who have come before us have done as well, and they all survived.

Enjoy the next year and all the emotions that come with it and when it is all said and done, we will always have each other!