The End is Near

It is nearing the end of the school year and the “World’s Coming to an End” syndrome is going around. There are many ways which people deal with the end nearing. Here are just a few:

The Its 5 o’clock Somewhere Crowd—the people who have totally given up on going to class or doing any work. Most of their days are spent tanning in this lovely weather, drinking beer, hosting barbeques and playing golf. All I have to say, it must be nice to be these kind of people without a care in the world. But you will be screwed when it comes down to the final days of finals.

The Library Group—Yes, I noticed all of you spending hours in the library, hoping it would help. They carry around oversized backpacks with all this year’s books and their laptops. Then, when they finally make it to the library, they on Facebook, AIM and Twitter to announce to the world they are here to work and, subsequently, get stuck in conversations and get little to no work done. My advice would be to leave the technology at home and write out the paper by hand (archaic, I know). At the very least, don’t connect to the internet and I guarantee you’ll get more done.

The Doom Sayers—The people who crowd Academic Services and the Writing Center, because, most likely, they slacked off the majority of the semester and are all now Chicken Littles, proclaiming the sky is falling. Relax. If you look at the amount of work you have as a whole, you will never get anything done. If you tackle thing one by one, then you will be fine.

The Sentimentalists—This usually applies to only seniors or people transferring. They try to capture everything with a sigh, stating over-sugary sweet proclamations like, “This is our last trip to Keene.” When you know, a few months ago, they were saying, “Keene sucks I can’t wait to get out of here.” To these people, take a picture, it lasts longer.

The G-Word Bombers—Also applies to seniors. Those few jittery people who either become depressed when you mention graduation or freak out. To these people, get over it! Seriously. Everything happens for a reason. There is a reason for this new chapter in your lives.

Senior vs. Senior

While I was home during winter break, I saw my little brother, Kevin, who is a senior in high school, doing things that made me remember my senior year of high school. I wouldn’t say I was nostalgic for high school, but I was reminded of what I used to do compared to my senior year in college now. And let me tell you, senior year of high school was a trip to Disney World compared to senior year in college. (And I’m not saying this because I actually did go on a trip to Disney World in senior year of high school).

When I was a senior in high school, everyone told you your options for the future. In my high school, everyone went to college. Whether they stayed in college was a different topic that was unspoken of. The SATs were something everyone knew about. The guidance counselor would help you with the application process and it only cost 50¢ to send a transcript. Now, senior year in college, no one tells you about the GREs, the general entrance exam to get into grad school. In fact, no one really tells you about the process of getting into grad school, transcripts cost $10, and, to get a job, you need to go searching for someone to help you.

Also, when I was a senior in high school, there was little or no homework. Thus, I could work and I wouldn’t be overwhelmed. During senior year of college, the idea of “free time” doesn’t really exist. I find myself working till 11pm and waking up at 6am in order to just get my homework done for one class the next day.

Another thing about being a senior in high school that was so great was the fun of it being the last year of high school. There was yearbook, superlatives, prom, semis, getting out of school early and more. There was a lot more things to look forward to and to have fun. In college, you work non-stop until graduation and, as soon as that is over, you need to get a job or get into grad school, because you are on your own afterward.

The immense amount of responsibilities associated with senior year in college is directly linked with getting older. Senior year of high school, I was 17 years old. Senior year of college, I am 21 years old. There are certain things that come with being 21 that you didn’t have to worry about when you were 17. But these responsibilities are just a pre-test for the real world, which is 4 months away.  My advice to seniors in high school—enjoy it while you can.

Please Leave

So, I am pretty busy during the year with being a full time student with two jobs. Pretty much everyone else is too, unless as my friend says, when you're unemployed, then weekends are meaningless. The last two weeks have been hectic between handing in papers, mysterious last minute projects that were never on the syllabus but show up anyways, and FINALS. Now, pretty much all that stuff is over for most people and laziness has become a welcomed stranger for the last few days. However, winter break seems to have a schedule that occurs every year that never fails on my part. It goes a little something like this:

Last day of classes- New Years: Fun! Fun! Fun! Celebrating holidays, shopping the last minute sales, seeing people you haven't seen in forever, sleeping in, drinking, decorating for Christmas, talking with friends you already miss from school, drinking, kicking yourself over those things you left at school but not really needing them yet, reading that book you never really got to over the semester, watching channels that your school in the middle of Bumfuck, New Hampshire doesn't have because it has 7 ESPNs but no WE or Food Network to speak of, drinking, etc.

January 2-January 5- Okay, kind of recovering from all that fun and/or alcohol

January 6-January 9- Things are kind of getting a little boring now...

January 9- 12- Things are DEFINITELY getting boring....

January 13-January 15- How many days till school?

January 16-January 17- Why did I ever leave those things at school?

January 18- Repeat stressful semester all over again.

This year, I feel like winter break has accelerated in the 3 days I have been out of school. Probably because I do actually have things to do this winter break, like potty training Romeo, completing my resume, applying to jobs, preparing for the English comp exam, reading the English comp book...Things that were on the back of my To Do list during the semester and now have come back to bite me in the butt. It's like having those unwelcomed guests at your Christmas party that are kind of bringing the party down but you don't want to make things awkward and ask them to leave. Try telling a book, "Um...hi...you're kind of bringing down the party. Do you mind leaving? No, please go out the back way, you've made this bad enough." I'm pretty sure the book will just stare blankly at you, maybe fall off the desk and barely escape getting eaten by your 8 month old puppy who is still going through "that phase" where everything in reaching distance is food.

Work you are bringing the party down. Please leave. Okay, thanks.

Until then, I will be procrastinating thoroughly. Let's just say, my family's large piles of laundry that were in the basement a few days ago are all clean and nicely folded.

Until next time...