4 Things to Do Before You Graduate to Put on Your Senior Year Checklist

I could have sworn freshman year was yesterday. But as senior year quickly approaches, I’m beginning to realize the first time I stepped onto campus, starry-eyed and eager, was many (many, many) yesterdays ago. I’ve long since ditched the cinderblock freshman dorm room filled with strangers for an off-campus house with some of my best friends. While I have many things to look forward to during my senior year, I can’t help but feel petrified about the end. In order to make the best of my senior year, I’ve made a list of goals to make sure that when I look back in nine months, I will feel like I didn’t let a single moment go to waste.

Add these things to do before you graduate to your own checklist to make senior year the best one yet.

1. Plan something new to do with friends every week

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From drawing nude models to trying new beers at The Virginia Beer Company, Williamsburg has many opportunities for a fun day with friends. While I’ve always intended to try out these exciting new things, I have yet to actually do so. I look back the most fondly on the days when my friends and I did crazy new things together. Make your goal to make more time to experience something new with your own friends in your own stomping ground every week.

2. Meet with professors to talk about subjects you’re interested in

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It inevitably happens every semester: While in class, I find a topic so extremely interesting and want to learn more about it, so I promise myself to visit my professor during his or her office hours in order to further explore my fascination. Yet every time the professor’s office hours roll around, I find myself preoccupied with something else. While we always have the opportunity to explore subjects that spark our curiosity, these seemingly limitless sources of knowledge will not always be so readily available when we graduate. Plus, despite possibly earning the teacher’s pet title, talking to your professors is actually a blast.

3. Record the memories in the making

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Nothing beats looking back at old journal entries or glancing through photos from the past. Recently, I’ve neglected recording the day-to-day moments that make the college life so special. In order to preserve these experiences for my future self, I’m making a conscious effort to take as many pictures as I can and write down funny one-liners or moments that happen. If a journal will end up crumpled at the bottom of some drawer, consider keeping track in the notes on your phone.

4. Stress less

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Sometimes my predisposition to perfectionism makes me stress about the little things. I’ll find myself staying in on fun nights or missing out on opportunities to relax because I want every detail of my project to be perfect or want every line of my essay to sound spectacular. While I should always try my best, I want to make sure I don’t stress myself out too much in my attempt to do so and stress away my senior year.