Going through your last semester is something you've probably visualized once or twice in your early years of college, except you probably only thought of how exciting and powerful it must be to be a senior, instead of how truly weird and crazy it is. Sadly, the joy and thrill of almost being done doesn't compare to how different it really would be once you're there. Senior year is definitely the hardest, but also the strangest as you're about to go through the biggest transition of your life, while reflecting on the past few years of your life which have also changed you the most.
1. "Wow, this is the last *Annual or Insignificant Event* ever."
The things we encounter annually turn into "this is the last ___" ever. After college, Halloween, Christmas, and your birthday will be completely different. Some might not be as good, but others might be better, for example, no more dealing with finals while constantly having Christmas on your mind. After seasons, holidays, or anything else annual ends, you realize that was the last one you'll ever experience in college, or ever again. You might even strangely miss having classes in a certain building, or miss living in the dorms (few do).
2. How much of the same food you've eaten
Anyone with a meal plan has had the same meal at least 100 times. Even if you move off campus, most of us get too busy to cook occasionally and have macaroni or ramen noodles. When you realize how much of the same food you've eaten over the past four years, it's kind of funny but also weird at the same time. After 4 or more years, you might really forget most of the common homecooked meals you had. By the time you're about to graduate, you never want to look at a pack of ramen noodles again.
3. Who you really cared about in college
This doesn't imply that you won't care about everyone you met, but you'd be surprised at how many people you'll seriously miss. It isn't until you're just months away from suddenly not being around thousands of people your age, and living 10 minutes away from your best friend, that you realize who really meant the most to you in college. This doesn't go to say that the people you don't think about didn't mean anything, but others simply just meant more to us than others, or helped shape who we are today. You will miss people you never even thought you'd miss, even sometimes faculty that you see occasionally on campus. It's a huge transition moving from one area you've been in forever, recognizing so many of the same people for years, and then go back to an area of people you haven't seen for longer than a few weeks at a time in what feels like ages.
4. How much you'll miss professors
Only in your last year will you begin to miss certain professors, which hopefully everyone has encountered at least one good one in their college career. You don't realize how important college professors are until you're about the enter the real world. They were the only adults around us besides our parents. Although they can be just as tough as our parents sometimes, they ultimately saw a side of us that our parents never got to see in us, as the student. Your professors have more to offer you than you think in the real world. They're also the closest to a boss you'll have before you get a job, so take advantage of them while you can. You might even find that you relate to them more than ever.
5. How much you've changed
It's inevitable that you will compare everything you're doing now, to when you first got to college. You sometimes want to go back to being the carefree, happy freshman you were, but you also know that that you had more flaws, and much more to learn. It's crazy how much different you are since freshmen year. Usually, your attitude towards everything and yourself is better, you're more open-minded, and you appreciate things differently. College makes us learn a lot, living in a giant bubble of people our age for years, living a low quality and hard-working life, but also having the most fun with the most amazing people.
Senior year comes with as many realizations about how college has changed you as it does with homework assignments. You might find yourself with a completely different attitude about everything, even mundane things such as parties, in your last semester. You don't have much time anyone to really make huge changes in the long-term in college, let alone any time at all, but you do go about your daily life much differently than in previous years. Nevertheless, senior year is definitely one to remember, and if you feel like things are stranger, then that simply means that college has made you grow in one way or another.
