By Tara Adamczyk, Advertising Manager 

Looking back at freshman year, most of you probably felt pretty confident in yourselves. We knew what we wanted to be and thought we had our futures figured out. Four years later, we are about to walk in our caps and gown and receive that long-awaited college degree. If people only knew the millions of thoughts running through our heads.  

“This year just needs to be over with. I just want to be done. Sadly this semester is going to drag on and the pressure of my senior project is going to eat me alive because I just want it over and done with,” said senior, Ian Rice.  

Personally, I was fine until the end of spring break and then everything hit me at once. Suddenly, I felt an overflow of work that needs to get done, things I have to read, finishing my resume, and putting everything together for my senior project presentation. Along with doing all of this work, I am also still trying to figure out what I want to do with my life.  

Finishing up the senior project is probably the worst of it. I can handle the exams and papers. But showcasing that you learned something in the past four years through a semester-long project is the most stressful thing I have ever done. I have all these thoughts running through my head, and things written down. Luckily, I have a senior project supervisor that will keep me in line and help me sort out through the problems I am having. Amongst all of this I have to focus on passing other classes and getting everything ready for graduate school.  

I came to realize that other than having a personal goal of receiving a master’s degree, the only reason it was so important to me to get into grad school was because I literally need to buy more time. I have no idea what I want to do with my life. When people ask, “So, you’re graduating college, then what?”, I literally just stare at them because I don’t have an answer other than, “I’m going to grad school because I haven’t figured out yet.”  

Another stress you deal with in your last semester is finding a job. All those connections you bragged about your freshman year are no longer there. Some majors have a lot of options in the Ohio Valley, and people in those majors who choose to stay here do find jobs. However, some of us are finding it really hard. Experience is either required or there is nothing in the area that you are interested in doing.  

If there is one thing I have learned in my senior year of college, it is that high school students need to shut up; figuring out what comes next after college is way harder than figuring out what comes after high school, senioritis exists, and it keeps on dragging you down, and that this is the most stressful time of your life. I feel like I know there is a light at the end of the tunnel, but I decided to take a detour and I am never going to reach it.