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By Amanda DeLuise

Spring has finally sprung.  We’ve finally gotten to a week in New York City where the weather stays above 55 degrees for more than one day, the flowers are blooming, kids are skipping class to sit in the park.  Wonderful.

But for some, with spring comes spring fever (which might be a real thing after all!) and the desire to spend the days skipping class and sitting in the park with that special someone.  The only problem is, college can be a pain in the relationship ass.  We got into this discussion in one of my classes last week–how are you supposed to meet anyone when school and work and school work have you locked in a loveless marriage?

I find it that most of the people I know who are in relationships here at NYU (where the male/female ratio is severely skewed) are in them with people who don’t go to NYU.  Myself included.  After two years of not meeting anyone in New York City, I met my current boyfriend when I was visiting my best friend at the University of Delaware.

So where does one turn after weighing all of your options and excluding all of the people in your classes or the people you see on a regular basis at the dining hall?

Believe it or not, a good amount of people my age at school have turned to online dating.  Something that once seemed taboo (read: only for old people) is now making its way into younger circles thanks to the success of websites like Date My School and OkCupid.

So if you have some extra time for a few coffee dates but no time to meet someone to ask on them, check out these sites!  Trust me, you aren’t the only one and online dating isn’t just for your parents anymore.  Finally there’s a way to access people at your school that share your interests without having to go through all 30,000 something undergraduate Facebooks.

By Amanda DeLuise

Lately I’ve been feeling weird.

Everyone I knew in high school hated junior year because it’s where you had to take the hardest classes to impress colleges.  Not to mention start looking at colleges and deciding where you wanted to apply.  Then, senior year comes along and you have not a care in the world once you’re accepted and make a stable plan for after high school.

So if senioritis means ignoring all your school work after you have everything figured out, junioritis must be where every little thing about the near future freaks you out.

I have it again.  I think I came down with it when I realized next week I’ll be registering for my first semester of senior year classes.  I have about a month left of junior year then I’ll be a senior in college.

What happened?  It seems like just yesterday I wrote my first blog entry about being a freshman in New York City at NYU and now it’s all coming to a close.  I don’t want to rush what good time I have left here, but the end is inevitable.

But the worst part is not knowing what comes after.  I guess it’s a bit like high school.. you have to apply to places and see where will take you and where won’t…but here’s there’s more room to fall, to fail, to be left with nothing.

After spending roughly $200,000 on two college degrees, what if I can’t find a job?  Or what if I find one and realize that it’s actually NOT what I want to do for the rest of my life?

Is there a crisis hotline for quarter life crisises? Is there such a thing as a quarter life crisis?  Neither of my parents went to college, so I can’t ask them.  My cousin graduated last year but was the head of his class in such a small program (landscape architecture) that he got an offer right away.

So who can I turn to?  One of the other millions of journalism majors who will soon have a degree in something that everyone can essentially do through blogging and civil reporting? One of the millions of people with the same qualifications as me fighting for the same job?

What’s a junior to do…?

By Amanda DeLuise > Junior > New York University

Though it’s been a crazy month for weather this March, the end of the week will bring April to New York City.  Usually with April comes showers, but I’m hoping we skip over that since all March consisted of was showers (either snow or rain).  So, flowers in April sound pretty nice.

But weather aside, April is a great motivation month.  Winter is finally far off into the distance and everyone starts realizing that only one more month stands between you and the end of school! Well, usually May brings finals, but those aren’t so bad in the grand scheme of things…Plus we get a “reading day” which means lots of “reading days eve” parties around the city.

Spring break was a great refresher (though it could have lasted forever and I would have been fine with that), but now I’m back and ready to rumble through April.  I’ll have fresh warm air to run through every morning and walk to class through.  Everyone will be in a better mood because they can wear shorts, skirts and dresses and leave their parkas at home.

After class means trips to Central Park to write papers, instead of trips to Starbucks, trying to find an open table in an impossibly thick sea of students and winter coats and hats and gloves.

What I’m most excited about is the way our campus really comes alive during the spring.  When the fountain in Washington Square Park is turned on, drones of kids come out of hiding in the library to read Freud or Aristotle or Susan Orlean.  I feel like I’m really at college again, which is the best motivation, I think.

Some of my friends in Battery Park.

Wherever you go to school–take a walk around! You'll see some cool stuff. This is Manhattan from the Brooklyn Bridge.