College Life

You Love College, But Now It's Your Last Semester!

by Marisol Cortez, SUNY Cortland, April 16, 2008

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What Are You Going To Do?

Who would have ever thought that college would soon be coming to an end?

First year, first semester, you are so homesick; you are wishing you never came to college in the first place. You left your family and all the people who have been your friends since probably elementary school behind. College is when your new life begins. Many times you find yourself alone. You sit in your dorm room wondering how you are going to make new friends. However, you tend to spend a lot of time trying to keep your grades up so that you can prove that you do belong in college. After all, this is your first year; you want to make a good impression.

Sophomore year comes around and you are having a blast. You have met just enough people to be able to go out, party and have a good time. Your grades still matter to you but they are not your first priority anymore. You have worked hard during your first year of college and now it is time to have some fun. This is when you begin to drop classes that you are failing because you figure Oh I can just take them another time, I still have two more years in college. You know that dropping classes that is an easy way to keep you GPA up.

By the time your junior year comes around, you are beginning to calculate the amount of credits you need to be able to graduate. This is when you try to take as many credits as you possibly can to ensure that you graduate on time. But graduation isn’t the only thing on your mind. By this time, you are probably 21 and you know what that means: Yes, you are legal to go to the bars and drink alcohol. Everyone goes to the bars, sometimes even people who aren’t allowed to. So why wouldn’t you? Now you can really party and not feel guilty about it. You want to party as much as you can because you know that you only have one more year left in college.

By the time senior year arrives, your attitude begins to change completely. You already have everything figured out. You know how many credits you have to take each semester to graduate on time. You are pretty much ready to be done. However, the thought of it being your last semester of college kind of freaks you out. You are so tired of school that you just want to hurry and finish. It is not as simple as it may seem. This is the year when “senioritis” begins to kick in. You are pretty much ready to be done. You are just not motivated to go to class, to study or to finish assignments. You know you will be graduating soon, so grades do not matter anymore. As long as you stay above a certain GPA, you are ok. However, the thought of your last semester of college kind of freaks you out. All your life your parents, teachers and other people have pushed you to work hard, get good grades and achieve your goals. Your senior year is time for you to figure out your next step. You begin to think about what you are going to do after graduation. You know that very soon you will be out on your own. You begin to worry about things such as work, living arrangements and transportation. Soon you will have to get a “real” job.

What is going to be the right job for you? How easy or difficult will it be to find a job that interests you? Is the job going to pay you what you are looking for? Are there any benefits? How many hours do you want to work or how many hours do you have to work? These are all questions you begin to ask yourself because the job you get after you graduate should be a job you want to keep for the rest of your life. You want to find a job that uses your degree. That’s why you went to college, right? On the other hand, maybe you shouldn’t be so uptight about all this job nonsense. Maybe you just want to relax after you graduate. You can just stay home, or maybe travel a little and just have some fun.

However, you know that one way or another you’re going to have to move on with your life. Whether you choose to get a job or just relax after you graduate, it will be time for you to become independent. Living on one’s own is always a scary propostion for many people. Where do you want to live? Do you want to be close to or far from your family and friends? Will you live by yourself? Will you have enough money to survive on your own? Oh, and there are those loans that you have to begin paying back after you graduate. You can already see that your life in the near future is not going to be as simple as it has been in college.

Ok, now back to reality. You still have to actually graduate before your future happens. There are still a million papers to write, a few presentations to do, maybe a few more hours to put in for an internship, maybe a portfolio to put together… and then there are exams you still have to take! Yes, the final thing you must do in order to graduate. But you are so stressed out; you don’t even know if you have energy to study. Actually, you just don’t feel like studying at all. But then that exciting day comes when you buy your cap and gown and receive your tickets for graduation. Then the realization hits you: You really want to finish school. There are few weeks left before the semester is over, so you know you have to push yourself as much as you can. Pretty soon you are going to be a college graduate, and in the long run, all your hard work will be worth it!

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