Okay, so after weeks of whining about personal statement essays and GRE practice tests, I think it’s time to take a step back, and evaluate. The fall semester is almost over and I’m still standing.  And high moments and low moments aside, I think I’ve done a pretty good job of creating a balance between the fun and the functional.

With that in mind, I’m going to do something I’m completely unqualified to do. I’m going to offer you ladies some advice. Well, not so much advice as guidelines. Guide posts? Rules? Err…just keep this stuff in mind as you attempt to make it through your senior year.

Don’t be so focused on the future that you forget about the present.
During your senior year, it’s easy to get swept up in the idea of what comes next. Grad school applications and GREs. Internships and job interviews. Every time you turn around you’ll have to do something else to prepare for next year. And if that’s not stressful enough, everyone will be asking you about it every step of the way. What are your plans for next year? Will you be applying to grad school? Shouldn’t you have decided by now? Over and over again people will be bombarding you from every angle with questions about the future. But every once it a while you just need to remember to block them out and breathe. Sure it’s your last year of college, but you’re still in college. Don’t forget what that means. You’ll never be able to figure out exactly where you’ll be a year from now, so focus on the here and now instead.

Embrace the cliché college experience.
Go to every college hosted event you can, because it’s the last time you’ll ever be able to experience that event as a college student. I don’t have the numbers on this but I’m pretty sure that the current students tailgating in the parking lot during homecoming enjoyed the event a whole lot more than the alumni watching the game. The same goes for the pep rallies and the movie nights and everything else you stopped going to after sophomore year. Give it one more go. Think of it as a warm up for senior week. Read More »

It’s weird how when you’re away from your campus for so long and you finally roll into familiar stomping grounds, you feel like you never left. It seems like a dumb and cliché thing to say, but there’s something about being dropped from one familiar place (home) to another familiar place (school) that erases what little shock value might want to rear its ugly head.

Maybe it’s because I wanted to come back to school more badly than ever before, but I’m not having a hard time tucking summer into closets and chests. I’m still a little shell-shocked, though. I think it might have something to do with knowing that this is my last year here. I made this place my home more than real home, and not being here just sounds…wrong.

My school isn’t very nice to its upperclassmen, so I moved in on Saturday – which is a bitch when you live on the third floor with NO elevator – and started classes this Monday. I think maybe it’s to try and limit our Welcome Week to Welcome Weekend.

Like I told you guys last time, I’m playing the catch-up game, so I’ve got twenty credits this semester… and 16 next semester? Not sure how that one’s gonna work, what with my school only giving 4-credit courses, but I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it. That’s five classes. Still, it’s nowhere near as bad as it sounds. There’s an ass-crack of dawn class (really, it’s only 8:30, but if the sun is still in the east it’s too early for me) that only has six people in it, a general psychology class STOCKED with freshmen (more on that later), an acting class that I can already see is going to be my chill-class, a colonial American Literature class with a professor who loves to hear himself talk, and an advanced poetry class that I still haven’t taken and I’m a little worried about. Read More »