As I am sitting here with books stacked around me and bags under my eyes, I look at the calendar only to notice we are in the second week of this semester!! Is time moving in slow motion or what? I am starting to feel like that Christmas break did more harm than good. I am missing home cooked meals and family moments. I am missing staying up until 3:00 in the morning watching greys anatomy and then waking up at 3:00 in the afternoon just to do it all over again the next night. And most of all I am missing having nothing to do!
If you are a senior, you can literally see that finish line. You can taste it…not that you would want to put your moth on that ground or anything, but you know what I mean.
It is right on your fingertips, the cap, the gown, that graduation music with no words that everyone knows, the good byes, and then boom real life. Well, we aren’t going to get into the real-life part just yet because we are stressing out enough as it is…can we just finish? No more post-graduation questions. No more applications for grad school. Just finish.
Here are some tips to get through this last little push of the last semester of college.
1. Remember what you are doing this for.
When work starts piling up and you feel like you are out of gas, you start to lose motivation. That energy and excitement you had when you were a freshman no longer exists. Everything begins to seem pointless as you look at how much debt you are in or how much stress all of this is causing. I am here to tell you this is not pointless! Remember why you started. If you are studying to become a nurse or a doctor, you will be saving lives. We need you! If you are majoring in business or wanting to start your own, your creative ideas can shift this world in the right direction. Keep working! If you are an artist or a singer or a dancer, your messages are powerful, and your hands, voice, and body have a lot to say. Keep speaking! If you are studying to become a lawyer, there are people who deserve justice who cannot do it on their own. Come and help them! This is not pointless. Just remember who you are doing this for. Yes, for yourself and if you are a believer in Christ then Him as well, but you are also doing this for them. The ones who did not have the opportunity to study like we did.
2. Take some time to reset.
It is so important that you take some time for yourself this semester. Your engine may not start like it used to, so taking time to do what makes you happy will really help get that engine roaring again. You can do yoga, go for a run, draw, write, paint, watch a FEW shows, whatever it takes to help you breathe and reset for a second and then get back on your grind.
3. Seize every moment, every opportunity, every chance…because this is it.
As badly as we want to leave and say “PEACE OUT SUCKERS” to all the under classmen, you have to admit, it is just a little sad saying good bye to your undergrad years. As you scroll through the memories you and your friends shared as freshman and sophomores and you start calculating the miles that now separate you all due to different paths, it gets a little cold and dark. This is it ladies and gentlemen! It is so important to take every opportunity that is presented to you! Yes, you are tired. Yes, your feet hurt, and money is tight, but the moment you are living in can never be rewind when you are not tired or when your feet have been rubbed down or when you hit the lottery. No, this moment is now. I suggest not to let it pass you by because once it is gone it cannot be relived.
So, seniors….we are almost there. Just keep pushing to the finish line and you will look back and know that all of this was worth it!