Hi fellow senior collegiettes! After a few random, blissfully warm days and the evil emergence of midterm season once again, March is upon us. In the past, March has always meant making bajillion-page study guides, anxiously awaiting Spring Break, and finally shipping home my down jacket and cozy sweaters. This time around, however, in our final college March, it feels like time is flying by a little too quickly and the roller coaster that is senior spring is approaching that final crazy drop. In my opinion, one of the weirdest things about senior year is that no one prepares you for it. Before freshman year, 95% of my greatest fears and anxieties could be addressed by my endlessly patient mother or an aisle in Bed Bath & Beyond. Well, as far as I can tell, there’s no “Senior Spring” aisle of drying racks, mini fridges, and extra long sheets that can tackle the simultaneously nostalgic and scared and excited and anxious attitude that makes up senior year. I’ve found a huge amount of comfort in commiserating with other seniors, and that’s what we hope to do with #SeniorSpring.
One of the greatest lessons I took away from an extremely overscheduled fall semester is that you only get one chance at senior year (You Only Senior Spring Once…YOSSO?). As important as internships and babysitting and continuing to pour your soul into your GPA are, it’s equally, if not more, important to dedicate time to doing what makes you happy. College is an experience with an end date, so don’t miss out on the event or dinner or party you’ve been looking forward to for weeks to reread notes that you could just as easily review tomorrow.
With two and a half months of time and this attitude in mind, read on for a Senior Spring Bucket List compiled from the personal aspirations of some of our wise and adventurous senior peers. I can’t promise that all of their ideas will end well, but I can guarantee that with this list in mind, you will absolutely have a memorable last semester here at Barnard!
1. Have a sleepover on Lehman Lawn.
2. Steal nameplates from your favorite professors’ doors.
3. Ride the lion statue in front of Dodge.
4. Use the public safety shuttle if you’ve never taken it before. You don’t even need a reason. Ride for three full rotations around all the stops. When the guard asks where you’re going, just keep telling him you’re almost there.
5. Pretend you’re a BSAR with a group of friends and see how many random people you can get to join your tour.
6. Watch the sunrise from the roof of Butler.
7. If you’ve never been before, you have to go to “bottomless (boozy!) brunch” one Sunday. Wait and go in April when it’s nice out. Endless mimosas and an outdoor table? Perfect.
8. Show up to a random club meeting that’s way out of your league—something about engineering or neuroscience or visual arts—and just join in as if you know what’s going on.
9. Drink with Millie.
10. Explore the tunnels that run underneath Columbia’s campus.
11. Lie out on the College Walk lawns once the Polar Vortex is gone for good.
12. Subsist off of free food from campus events for an entire week.
13. Track down the now extinct Barnard Hanky Panky thong (and let the rest of us know where you can find them!).
14. Write a love letter to the hot TA/professor you’ve fantasized about for 4 years.
15. Dust off your sense of school spirit and go to a Columbia sports game of any kind.
16. Actually go to one of the numerous incredibly cool panels or events held on campus. (Hint: Anna Quindlen is coming to campus in April!)
17. It’s a cliché but you’ve gotta do it: have sex in the Butler Stacks—or any other academic building for that matter.
18. Throwback to the Hewitt days: swipe in & steal all of the fruit you can fit in your backpack!
19. Schedule a meeting at Career Development, even just to chat about the future, if you’ve never ventured to that side of Claremont. Career counseling is good for the senior spring soul!
20. Find the owl on Alma Mater.
21. Finish a paper more than two days before it’s due.
22. Order a bitchface at Cannon’s. Newly renamed venue or not, that drink is life changing.
23. Go to DSpar’s office hours…or just go to any event where you can hear her speak. If you haven’t gotten to witness her amazingness since Convocation during NSOP, you’re seriously missing out.
24. Stay in the Barnard library after the “The Library is closing at 6pm!!” call. What happens to you? Does public safety carry you out? Report back.
25. If you’ve never ordered by phone from International, do it! The beverage of your choice delivered literally to your front door? Priceless.