Graduation is quickly approaching (I don't want to talk about it) and, as such, we seniors are trying to take advantage of the time we have left to live life in our last weeks as college students to the fullest. With the realization that my time as a student at Penn State would be coming to a close fairly shortly (still not emotionally equipped to even type that sentence without panicking) came the accompanying realization that there are a lot of things I need to do before I leave for the real world — whether for the first time or as a last hurrah.
The following is a bucket list for PSU seniors to check off before that fateful weekend in May when we walk across the stage. Proceed with caution, but do your darnedest to complete as many as you can.
1. Take a picture with your friends in your caps and gowns at the Lion Shrine/in front of Old Main.
2. Put your handprint on the mural downtown.
3. Attend all the fraternity daylongs. Yeah, we're 21, but we have the rest of our lives to go to bars. Fraternity functions are not forever.
4. Get grilled stickies at The Diner.
5. Buy a used book or record from Webster's.
6. Take the White Loop to East for wing or nacho night and cry into your nasty food because you're not a freshman.
7. Hike Mt. Nittany.
8. Go to Dark Horse's Sex Trivia Tuesday with friends and fight like hell to win that week's creepy prize.
9. See how many endless burritos you can actually eat on Mad Mex Monday.
10. Reach out to an awesome professor you had during any semester and let him or her know how much you appreciated his or her class/advice/etc.
11. Treat yourself to a nice dinner at Allen Street Grill with friends and enjoy the view of Old Main.
12. Go bowling and buy endless beer pitchers.
13. Get a Penn State-unique flavor (like Peachy Paterno) at Berkey Creamery and eat it on the patio of the Creamery with friends.
14. Take the free van to the End Zone. Never tell your mother about it.
15. Do the Mifflin Streak.
16. Attend a Greek Week social dressed for the theme. Drink too much Vlad and pretend you're an underclassman one last time.
17. Do a bar tour with your friends and make matching T-shirts for the occasion.
18. Jump in the Arboretum fountain.
19. Go to the Blue and White game and spend its entirety in denial that this is your last time in Beaver Stadium as a student.
20. Get the tray of fries at Local Whiskey and make it your mission for your group of friends to actually finish them. (Has this ever actually been done by less than 10 people?)
21. Paint commemorative PSU-colored pottery at 2000 Degrees.
22. Attend a Penn State baseball game.
23. Take a drive out of State College with your friends with no destination in mind. End up at a weird thrift shop in Altoona and regret nothing.
24. Lay out by the pool at The Retreat.
25. Buy a "Penn State Alumni" sticker from McLanahan's for your car. Cry.
26. Go to Levels not on a Tuesday and get aggressive on the dance floor.
27. Spend a night in with your roommates and drink too much wine/beer and reminisce on all your college shenanigans.
28. Roll up to Pollock Brunch, spend the $14, and get one of everything the buffet has to offer.
29. Look up the schedule of events for talks and seminars taking place on campus. Find an author/politician/speaker who sounds interesting to you and go listen to his or her talk.
30. Get the blonde, female bartender at Saloon to smile. It can even be a soft smile. Anything.
31. Attend another sorority's/fraternity's philanthropy event just because you can and should, not because your chapter is making you.
32. Set up a scavenger hunt to be completed in a set amount of time downtown.
33. Instead of dragging your hungover self to Starbucks for a latte on Sunday morning, go to Kildare's for Bloody Marys and brunch and just keep the weekend going.
34. Buy a disposable camera and use all the exposures in one night — no random pictures of the floor allowed.
35. Have your old letter shirts made into a quilt.
36. Dance along to the live music in the weird, back room of The Skellar.
37. Get a Fat sandwich from Are U Hungry?
38. Answer one of your professor's questions in a large lecture class for probably the first time since you came to college. Feel awkward but proud.
39. Use up all your remaining Pocket Points at the end of the semester in one, giant, binge-eating frenzy.
40. Sit on the couch literally all day, watching TV with your roommates and eating food from OrderUp for lunch AND dinner. Realize you will never really be able to do this again once you're a real person with a career.
41. Go to class in your pajamas simply because this is the last time in your life you can participate in your daily activities having done nothing but roll out of bed and not be treated any differently for it.
42. Do a tour de Fratland during late night on a Friday and visit all your old favorite houses. Maybe make grilled cheese in one of their kitchens.
43. Rent a room with a ridiculous amount of friends at the Nittany Lion Inn for a night.
44. Sit in the HUB around lunchtime and people-watch.
45. Send your parents/grandparents/whoever you consider most influential in your life "thank you" cards for helping to get you where you are today.
46. Actually go inside Old Main.
47. Eat at Tavern and order one of every side.
48. See how long you can stand up from your table and walk around in Primanti's without getting kicked out.
49. Skip class to go to Mad Mex or Café on a weekday. Stay until the sun goes down.
50. Stay in State College for senior week. Care about nothing except soaking up every moment that makes up the end of your college career.