The actual victory lap has begun. Yesterday marked the one-month countdown to my college graduation. For seniors with an impending send-off from Champaign, this makes everything around and about campus take on a sudden, undeserved sheen. As far as I can tell, we react to graduation by glorifying college this last month in several different, key ways.
1). Regression: Remember that bar you loved freshman year? Maybe the doorman looked the other way when he noticed that your fake id had expired in the late 90s, or that the gender portrayed on that little card did not match your own. It may have been that it was the one bar that did not charge your young self cover, or perhaps you just went there to listen to your favorite tunes and to dance with your friends on Wednesday-Saturday nights. After two or three semesters of loyal patronage, however, you wised up. You realized that other bars on campus actually had toilet paper in their bathrooms and washed their floors more than twice a week. You ditched your old favorite hang-out for the lure of tp and non-sticky surfaces, and until now, you haven't looked back. What's changed? You're about to graduate. This is your last chance to revisit the bar where you met that one guy whose name you no longer remember, where you lost your favorite clutch and where you learned that taking off your shoes in a bar is never a good call. Those of you that are spending this last month heading back to freshman year haunts in spite of the noxious wave of an unknown smell that hits you when you walk in the door are currently going through this phase: regression.
2). Over-indulgence: You're not really hungry for Chipotle, you don't need the calories that Chipotle contains, and quite frankly there are four Chipotle restaurants in your hometown (where you'll be moving back temporarily after graduation this summer). Yet, this is your last chance to eat at this Chipotle, here on Green Street, in Champaign, IL. Surely, you had some memories here, and you don't want to waste your last month as a college senior by eating a Lean Cuisine in your apartment. No, you will properly live it up; you will go get that burrito bowl! So, the over-indulgence mentality sets in. Now, if you feel this way about a chain restaurant, imagine how you'll feel about that small, local burger joint, or that little nail salon, or that boutique that you've always loved. You will eat, drink, and shop until you drop this last month simply because this is it: your last chance to do all those mundane things that weren't really that great for four years, but have all of a sudden become inexplicably glorified because of their imminent retreat from your life.
3). Avoidance: You cannot deal with the fact that it is almost over, so you spend every weekend away from campus, away from the poignant reminders that your time with the Alma Mater, the Quad and the Murrow Plots is almost at an end. You visit your boyfriend, your great-aunt, and picturesque national parks, but you have as little as possible to do with Champaign: it's just too painful.
Seniors, whatever stage of pre-graduation panic/mourning/acceptance/flat-out-senioritis you are in, this is it: the real victory lap. One month and counting! Scary, exciting...YIKES. What are your thoughts, and how are you coping with/enjoying the last days?
1). Regression: Remember that bar you loved freshman year? Maybe the doorman looked the other way when he noticed that your fake id had expired in the late 90s, or that the gender portrayed on that little card did not match your own. It may have been that it was the one bar that did not charge your young self cover, or perhaps you just went there to listen to your favorite tunes and to dance with your friends on Wednesday-Saturday nights. After two or three semesters of loyal patronage, however, you wised up. You realized that other bars on campus actually had toilet paper in their bathrooms and washed their floors more than twice a week. You ditched your old favorite hang-out for the lure of tp and non-sticky surfaces, and until now, you haven't looked back. What's changed? You're about to graduate. This is your last chance to revisit the bar where you met that one guy whose name you no longer remember, where you lost your favorite clutch and where you learned that taking off your shoes in a bar is never a good call. Those of you that are spending this last month heading back to freshman year haunts in spite of the noxious wave of an unknown smell that hits you when you walk in the door are currently going through this phase: regression.
2). Over-indulgence: You're not really hungry for Chipotle, you don't need the calories that Chipotle contains, and quite frankly there are four Chipotle restaurants in your hometown (where you'll be moving back temporarily after graduation this summer). Yet, this is your last chance to eat at this Chipotle, here on Green Street, in Champaign, IL. Surely, you had some memories here, and you don't want to waste your last month as a college senior by eating a Lean Cuisine in your apartment. No, you will properly live it up; you will go get that burrito bowl! So, the over-indulgence mentality sets in. Now, if you feel this way about a chain restaurant, imagine how you'll feel about that small, local burger joint, or that little nail salon, or that boutique that you've always loved. You will eat, drink, and shop until you drop this last month simply because this is it: your last chance to do all those mundane things that weren't really that great for four years, but have all of a sudden become inexplicably glorified because of their imminent retreat from your life.
3). Avoidance: You cannot deal with the fact that it is almost over, so you spend every weekend away from campus, away from the poignant reminders that your time with the Alma Mater, the Quad and the Murrow Plots is almost at an end. You visit your boyfriend, your great-aunt, and picturesque national parks, but you have as little as possible to do with Champaign: it's just too painful.
Seniors, whatever stage of pre-graduation panic/mourning/acceptance/flat-out-senioritis you are in, this is it: the real victory lap. One month and counting! Scary, exciting...YIKES. What are your thoughts, and how are you coping with/enjoying the last days?
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