The thought of entering your senior year of college is pretty intimidating.
You are expected to start looking for jobs, places to live and actually being an adult. I was lucky. My junior year I was able to live with 5 seniors, not only was I lucky to have them as a friend, I was lucky to learn from them to prepare me for my time as a senior.
I will say, it was not easy living with upper classmen, they were doing many things for senior year while I sat back and watched nervously, classes such as senior thesis, senior symposium and sending off from our sorority. As I sat and watched them all apply for jobs, graduate school and places to live for their next chapter of their lives I realized how much I learned from these amazingly strong women.
I did not have older siblings in my family; it was just my brother and me growing up. I also am the first one in my family to go to college, so everything is a new and exciting experience for my parents and we are not really informed on how things really work. Living with my 5 housemates definitely helped with this situation. They were my older sisters for the past few years that I have known them, they took me in after I begged and pleaded, they let me tag along and they taught me how to navigate the next chapter of my life.
Being able to live with these women was eye opening and has set me up for what I should anticipate for my next year as I approach graduation and what to expect in the real world. I get anxious watching them do all these “big people” things and think I should be doing the same, but I realized I have time, but to keep all the information they have given me in the back of my head to prepare me for my final semesters.
I learned to enjoy every second of my final year. You only get one, one last chance to make that 1 a.m. run to get food, once last chance to spend all night laughing about things you had done previous semesters, one last time to create these college memories. There is no need to rush through these things, in college, but in life in general. Time moves fast, so why do we try and make it go faster. Sometimes it feels like my senior year will never get here and I will be stuck in school forever, but then I realize how much time I really have.
We have all been told that college will be the best four years of your life, but an older man told me the same thing not to long ago and it really made me think. College really is the best four years, right now. Soon once I graduate and set out on my own, those will then be the best years of my life and the next chapter after that, but right now college is the best four years, and by living with current seniors I have learned not to take that for granted.
I learned that there are so many opportunities out there for me. The options are endless, I could travel, continue my studies, find a job, or live at home—just kidding mom and dad. But seriously, there are countless things for me to do and I have plenty of time to do them. Living with seniors I learned that there is no need to rush through your life, no need to rush through college. Take your time in everything you do and appreciate every little moment.
