April and May are times of mixed emotions for college seniors. Spring has sprung, and so have the rest of your lives. Scary, right? The truthful answer is, yes it’s a bit frightening, but also exciting. The last month of college is a time to relax, rejoice and relive some of your favorite memories with your favorite people.
Here are four tips to take full advantage of your senioritis without having to stay an extra semester.
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1. Don’t Dwell on the Future
Live in the present, or you might just let your last month slip by. While it is important to network and line your career up for the years to come, the most important thing to do in your last month of college is to take advantage of your campus or city. Most likely you will never live within a mile of all of your closest friends again. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing because staying up until 3 am on a Tuesday, truthfully, doesn’t bode too well for your mind, health or career. But until you wear that cap and gown, please stay up with your friends. If you don’t have a job lined up, don’t worry. Jobs will come. Enjoy what’s left of your college career. You may not know what your life will be like six months from now, but view it as exciting and full of potential. Remember your senior year of high school and the stresses of applying for college? How about last summer when you needed to get an internship to graduate, but all of your applications fell through? You have been through this stress before, and you will go through it again. Don’t let it eat you up, or your last month could be as scary and miserable as you dreamt it to be.
2. Be Spontaneous
Your last month is the time to embrace your full crazy college student. Senioritis can be tricky because you don’t want to let your grades slip to the point where you have to retake a class next fall, but your last month isn’t the time for you to stress over that looming exam or paper. Go to the concert three hours away on a Monday night. Stay up all night blaring music with your friends. Throw some huge Animal House parties; it most likely will be your last chance to do so. The parts of college that people remember the most are their first month of freshman year and their last month. Make some crazy memories that you might have to hide from your kids years away. Surprise yourself. Do something that you can crack a smile at, or reminisce about, when you meet up with your college friends 20 years down the road.
3. Embrace your Friendships
After four years of living with your closest college friends, they start to feel like family. The thought of moving away is one most people try to skip right over. Like I said before, you will never be this close to your friends again. Some friends might slowly fade away while others will call you every week. Through the ups and downs of college, which we all have had, your friends have been there to mold your memories, give you advice, and smack you on the head when you aren’t being yourself. After college, your relationships won’t be the same, but when you see each other again, it will take you back to watching a movie on your cold, hard and potato chip-encrusted freshman-year futon. Your last month is to make more memories with your friends. Don’t isolate yourself in your room, but say yes to playing pool uptown on a Wednesday afternoon. Spend as much time as possible with your college friends because you are not likely to see many of them again after graduation.
4. Networking
For those who can’t relax and live up their last month until a job is lined up, networking is the ticket. Connections are everywhere, and the ability to tell a possible future employer that you are graduating in a month makes landing a job much more feasible than if you were networking as a sophomore. It’s easier to live in the present and be spontaneous before graduation if you have already landed a job. The easiest way to do that is not getting a 4.0 your last semester. Place your stress where it should be. Go to speeches and table conversations that your college has made available in your field. Stay after the events and shake some hands. Visiting professionals love to explore the town that they have visited, so give them advice on where to go eat or grab a drink. If it goes well, maybe you can go with them. Avoid giving a sales pitch, and instead share your passions and desires. Be attentive and excited for the opportunity, but don’t suck up to the point where you become a nuisance. Understandably, it is easier to take it easy and enjoy your final weeks if you know that you aren’t moving back in with mom and dad after school, so networking can land you a job and set your stress aside.
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Think back to how much has changed since your 18-year-old self moved into your freshman-year dorm. College has brought excitement, stress, lifelong memories and moments you wish you could take back. Now, it’s all coming to an end. Senior year is a time of scattered emotions. It is imperative to cap off college and start the rest of your life with the same shaking excitement that you had when you took your first step on campus four years ago.
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