Adults always warn you to stay in school and enjoy your time in college because the real world isn’t all it is cracked up to be. So, let’s be honest. Entering your senior year of college feels like a death sentence. Every senior goes through the 5 stages of senior year.
1. Denial
All summer you acted like it wasn’t your last long, college summer break. When the school year started you swore to yourself that you wouldn’t say it out loud. Then it happened. Someone asked you what year you are forcing you to admit “I’m a senior”. It’s not until the words leave your mouth that the reality hits you. You’re a senior in college. There is no denying it.
2. Excitement
Once you admit that it’s your senior you think, “well I might as well embrace it,” and you enter the excitement phase. You enter the mind set of, “If I’m a senior then I have to carpe diem this year”. You start to do all the things that you said you would do while in college and crossing things off of your bucket list. Trying to cram as much fun into the last two semesters as humanly possible.
3. Stress
But as the fall semester comes to an end you realize that the real world is just around the corner and there is no more time to hide from your future. What am I going to do when I grow up? How do I make my resume stand out? Will I really find a job? How am I going to pay all my debt?! At this stage the pile of worry threatens to crush you.
4. Depression
Once the stress subsides, the sadness begins. You have to admit to yourself that things are about to change. You have to say goodbye to a life you have known for four year and enter the scary realm of adulthood.
5. Acceptance
Once you cry it out with all of your friends, the acceptance stages begins. You are in the home stretch and graduation is inevitable. You made it! After four years of hard work and life changing experiences you are finally going to get that certificate and be an adult. The whole world is at your feet and you are going out there and make your mark!