Ah, senior year…every college student has spent their undergraduate career longing for it, and honestly, on paper, it does sound nice. Usually by this point, most of your courses are out of the way, so you can accommodate one or more day off in your schedule. Also, you’re most likely only taking classes in your major(s)/minor(s)/areas of general interest, so even when you ARE in class, it isn’t a total drag. Finally, to top it off, there are lots of fun, senior-only events you can go to, like senior pub nights, wine and cheese, 50 and 100 days etc. and because (in theory) you have more free time on your hands, you can actually go and be social. Minimal class commitments, focusing on material you care about in the few classes you have, and college-sanctioned social time…sounds like a dream, right?
WRONG. Let’s just make one thing abundantly clear; senior year of college is stressful with a capital S. I wish I could lie to you and say it isn’t, but I’m not a liar, and you might as well just accept it now so that when eventually, the stress does come, you’re ready to face it head on. There is a reason that the quarter-life crisis can happen anywhere from the start your twenties and into your thirties, because upon graduation you are essentially entering the real world and need to take care of yourself like a functional adult, and that is SCARY.
One of the great things about college (at least for me) is that there’s a structure laid out for you of what you’re supposed to do and when so there’s essentially no question about what you have to be doing. Between degree, major, and minor requirements, in addition to a variety of college policies, once you decide what direction you want to take, you basically have the next four years of your life neatly and succinctly outlined for you. The real world, sadly, is not like this at all. Once you graduate, no one is telling you what to do with your life or how to productively spend your time. You need to impose those things upon yourself. So, with the impending loss of daily structure, you need to find something to do. Whether this is graduate school, a job, traveling, or whatever else you can think of to occupy your time, sadly, you can’t just go do it. You need to apply, and you need to apply to as many things as you can so that if Plan A fails, you always have Plans B, C, D, E, F, etc. to fall back on. As someone who is currently trying to find some kind of internship or apprenticeship in my chosen field (and don’t get me started on how difficult it is to find a job that pays in the arts. We’ll be here all week.), applying for stuff is a full-time job, and it’s a job that isn’t compatible with being a student who is involved in extracurricular activities and wants to have some semblance of a social life. You need to make tough decisions about what to prioritize, and there may be times when you might feel like you’ve made the wrong one and will have to deal with either pulling something off at the last minute or serious FOMO. Eventually, the pressure of trying to manage all of the things you want to/have to do will become too much and you will crack, and because everyone (generally) is experiencing similar stress, so expect for most of your friends to be pretty miserable along with you, which may also cause problems in your friendships.
Sounds pretty bleak, right? Although most of what I’ve said here is generally true, based on my experience, I really don’t want to scare you. The thing about senior year that makes it such an emotionally charged time is that while there can be a whole lot of bad and ugly parts, there are a lot of good parts too. First of all, making it to this point means that you’re about to receive something not everyone has: a college degree. While having a Bachelors’ degree doesn’t always mean instant success, it will certainly help you along, and the knowledge you’ve gained from your Muhlenberg education won’t just make you better at whatever you want to do with your life, it will also you make you a better and more thoughtful person. At Muhlenberg, we’ve been taught to look closely for the things that lie under the surface, to ask questions, and make sense of the world in new ways through independent and collaborative thought. This experience is so valuable in terms of recognizing problems in our world or in our lives and trying to come up with solutions to fix them, but also allows us to be able to relate more successfully interpersonally.
Secondly, the experiences that you’ve had at Muhlenberg, in and outside of class, have hopefully taught you some important skills and lessons that will serve you once you leave. This could be anything from spending a semester abroad and having to look after yourself in a foreign country, taking on a leadership position in an organization on campus and learning how to manage a group, or even a personal experience that taught you how strong you really are or how important it is to surround yourself with people who care about and support you. Whatever it is, hold on to that experience and cherish it. It will be a reminder later of how special your time here was.
Third, and lastly, just because there are a lot of responsibilities and new concerns that come with being a senior, it doesn’t mean that you won’t be able to have fun. In my experience, being able to do all of the things you love one last time makes them seem just as precious and exciting as they were the first time, and while you’ll eventually get sick of hearing, “Oh, it’s our last ______”, acknowledging the finality and the importance of the things that mattered to you while you were here brings a type of closure which I think makes saying goodbye a little easier. Be thankful for all you were able to do rather than focusing on what you didn’t do, and give the things you love all the effort and care you have.
So what is it really like to be a senior? At the end of the day, I think, it is, like most things in life, a mix of feelings and emotions: bad and good, terrifying and exciting, and disheartening and joyous. It’s a lot to handle, but I think that what makes the experience so formative is that it requires you to take stock of what’s important to you in your life at that very moment, and run off in pursuit of it wholeheartedly. So when you find yourself here, take the chance to think about what matters, do what you love, and acknowledge the people and things that have been formative for you. They’ll still be there for you after you’re gone, and the best thing any of us can do is let them know they matter.