For many people, as the summer begins to wind down and the school year quickly approaches, it is time to begin shopping for new clothes and restocking on school supplies, but for me--and thousands of other people--this school year will be different due to the fact that this September will mark the beginning of my final year of college. I'm not worried about getting new clothes because I'm too busy worrying about the fact that in a few short months, I will be out in "the real world" and I will have to face the realities of rent, bills, insurance, groceries, and--most importantly--finding a job.

While the thought of life after graduation is scary (H.P. Lovecraft said it best when he said, "the oldest and strongest kind of fear is that of the unknown.") I want to send a message to my fellow college seniors: You aren't done yet! Don't let the fact that you are senior keep you from experiencing new things.

Going into your senior year, you may be thinking that the time for trying things is over; you are just on campus to finish your remaining classes and graduate only to enter the workforce and spend the rest of days at work, but I'm telling you that it is important to try new things. When entering college, the best advice for freshman students is to join clubs and attend events--put yourself out there, but I think that the same can be said for seniors. Now is the time to join that club that you have always wanted to join, now is the time to talk to that person you have admired from across the dining hall for the past three years, now is the time to experience everything that college has to offer before you lose the opportunity.

During my second semester of my junior year I joined the journalism club; I had always wanted to join, but I was always too nervous about meeting new people and putting my writing out there for strangers to read, but I finally did it and I met some really awesome people and I gained a new confidence in my writing. I look back now and wish I had joined sooner, but I'm glad that I finally did it because it is a lot of fun. I also spent two years as an RA on my campus and I have had senior residents come up to me and say that my floor program was the first one that had ever attended and they wish that they had always gone to programs.

Don't let the fact that you are a senior keep you from trying new things! The countdown that you have to graduation day is also a countdown of the time you have left to "be a kid"--do the things that you've always wanted to do because your time of adventure is running out and the worst thing in life is to look back and say, "I wish I had..."