By Benjamin Solomon, Staff Writer
The semester is now drawing to a close. In a mere few weeks, the class of 2018 will be walking at graduation.
There is a lot to miss about UMass Dartmouth, like goofing around with friends in the campus center or the library, hanging out at your professors’ office hours, or strolling the campus when it is peacefully quiet on the weekend.
There is way more to look forward to in the near future.
You could move to some exotic place like Chile or China. You could find a job in your field of study or do something totally, astronomically different. You could get a dog or 12 dogs, or have kids, or stay as far away from that as possible.
There are immeasurable possibilities, but one thing I can’t wait for is to be rid of senioritis once and for all.
For most students, when you graduate college you are already at least somewhat familiar with this insidious affliction. In high school, senioritis hit me hard around April. This time around, it started a lot earlier.
Some claim it’s the weather – when its nice outside, a graduating student can hardly keep it together. This modest winter season really felt like spring several times before spring actually arrived.
When you think about what senioritis actually consists of, it becomes apparent that this state of mind manifests itself regardless of the temperature.
Senioritis is a mix of eagerness and apprehension. Eagerness, in the sense of dying to get out of school, to live your life. Apprehension, in the form of uncertainty about the future.
Exactly how this mix of emotions hits you, depends on you as an individual. Some students have things planned out pretty well and can feel some sense of direction. Others don’t really know what’s going to happen to them.
Even more than the sureness of your future – it depends on how much you have liked being a student.
Those who have enjoyed their experience at UMass Dartmouth are likely to feel more attachment and inertia when presented with the end of undergrad life. Those who had a less than stellar time are more likely to be the ones champing at the bit, so to say.
Either way, senioritis can have harrowing effects. This can include an inability to focus, general restlessness, and stress. These are all dire conditions for a student.
It gets worse. That feeling of being totally done with everything, of being way too concerned about little annoyances – senioritis does that.
You love your friends, so you try to spend more time with them before you have to leave them forever. Little do you suspect, however, that senioritis makes you see their flaws, their defects, their little issues in an exaggerated way.
Your classes, despite being in the field you love (or not), will fail to hold your interest. You will want to do anything but write five research papers and prepare for three final exams.
The important thing to remember is that you are almost out. You have the rest of your life to not do homework ever again or never again study for a test. Don’t let senioritis get in the way of what you have going.
You just have to make it to that last final or paper or presentation, and then you’re out. At least for a little while.