Sure, I’m glad that the semester is more than half over. Sure, I’m happy that the holidays are fast approaching. Sure, I’m glad that it’s my favorite season. But with all the awesome things that this time of the year brings along, there’s something that I just can’t stand, something that always comes around, and I sure as hell don’t mean the premiere of Redemption Song or the Law and Order marathon.

I mean being sick.

Not just “being sick,” though. Not just having a little cough or a small sniffle. No, I mean being sick as a dog. Having bronchitis. Having a box of tissues in one hand and pockets full of throat lozenges. When you’re on a small campus, one person’s cold is everyone else’s cold. Being stressed doesn’t help matters, either, so of course there are tons of other people in the boat with me – and not just seniors. And call me sadistic, but watching everyone suffer makes me feel a little less awful.

But my loss is your gain, folks. From my week-late thesis chapter, paper due on Friday that I still haven’t written, and a few other delayed things, I’ve learned some pretty awesome techniques to combatting exhaustion, delirium, sickness, and even lack of alcohol. Read More »

You hear the same marketing crap all the time: you’re in college to better your future.

Of course, having a Bachelors doesn’t really do anything anymore. I’ve heard about a ton about people who have their Bachelors and are working at a Domino’s or something. Getting a Masters seems like the next logical step, for students and apparently their parents. So is it such a bad thing that I really don’t want to go?

Being around a ton of people who are all talking about getting recommendations and narrowing down their grad school list makes me realize more and more that grad school really isn’t for me. My mom’s look of horror when I told her this one day this summer is the only thing I see when I talk about wanting to go into vet tech after I get out of school. Issue is, as an English major, I’m mildly suffering with what-do-I-do- with-this-diploma? syndrome. Publishing and editing are options, sure, but I don’t want to deal with that crap. It seems that some people assume that because a field has something to do with your major, you will inevitably want to be a part of that field.

And of course, there’s that inevitable money issue breathing down the necks of graduates. Do you stay in school for another two years so you don’t have to pay off loans just yet? Everyone seems to sort of just assume that jobs are lining up to grab college grads, but with the economy the way it is, I’m thinking that this is somehow far from the case. More and more of my senior class seems to be regretting their major because there’s nothing they can do with it to get money. What ever happened to going to college to just learn? Read More »

I don’t know if it’s because I transferred after my freshman year, or if time really does fly when you’re having fun, but it doesn’t seem like I should be going into my senior year. Everyone else seems surprised by this too; family and friends always give me that “Are you serious?” look when I tell them that I’m going to be graduating in May 2009.

Even some of my buddies at school go, “Oh, yeah…,” when I remind them that I won’t be around to see all of the nifty things that are opening on my campus for Fall 2009. (Seriously, I’m paying for the school to build a new cafeteria and a new theater, but I don’t get to see them? What the hell is that about?)

To say I’m nervous is kind of an obvious. I have a ton of things to do this upcoming school year. I have to take twenty credits this fall and somehow have sixteen more by the time I graduate so I can actually graduate. I need two more creative writing classes to fulfill my Creative Writing minor. I need to find somewhere to take a Spanish 102 class, as I took the first half in a summer course (which you might have read me groaning about), but never quite crossed the finish line. Read More »

As I was walking across campus today, iced coffee in hand, the sun was shining and the sky was bright blue. I suddenly went into classic senior freak-out mode, a.k.a. I had a really sad moment where I realized just how much I was going to miss this place.

There truly isn’t anything like college. I mean, what other time in your life will it be acceptable to find any excuse to make matching t-shirts and conduct your own barcrawl on a Wednesday? Or go on a semester long vacation abroad? Or do the walk of shame at 1pm instead of going to class?

So, I give to you a list of my advice for anyone in the beginning stages of this wonderful thing we call the undergraduate experience.

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