Trying Times
by Casey Lane Hudgins '08

Senior year is hard; there are so many different tasks to complete. It starts with checking your course audit and making sure you have enough credits in the right place in order to graduate, then you have to go to the Registrar's Office and let them check you off. You have to go by the Business Office and make sure you have paid everything, and then you have to go to Financial Aid and have your final loan meeting.

You have e-mails coming from ten different offices asking to meet with you or for you to do something else. You also have letters arriving in your mailbox with papers and forms to fill out. You also must buy a cap and gown and attend all of the ceremonies.

On top of all of this, you must start a resume, find jobs, find references, apply to these jobs, and maybe go through some sort of interview process all before you graduate.

I have been trying to finish all of this plus I am trying to find somewhere to live, which is a huge task in itself. This is hard, because meanwhile you still have classes, internships, part time jobs, and of course, the end of the semester is the most difficult with term papers, projects, presentations, portfolios, etc.  It's like the list never ends. It's almost as if professors forget that outside of their one class you have other obligations as well.

That is the challenge with college; you have to learn how to master a million things at once. Do not underestimate your senior year, it will sneak up on you and fly by before you know it. It is all worth it in the end, college is a huge investment all around, money, time, hard work are all invested.  Just some advice: start planning and accomplishing things early, then you won't end up stuck at the end pulling all-nighters.