Hey seniors, there’s only nine weeks until graduation. But who’s really counting anyways?

Here we are at the end of our undergraduate or graduate journey. Countless hours of studying, paper writing and crying has gone into working toward a diploma we all so desperately want.

I am sure that I am not the only one questioning how I got to this point. How did we all survive to make it this far without snapping, dropping out and just sitting in the corner of our parents house eating Hot Cheetos each hour of every day?

But now it is the hard part. Now we have to escape the wrath of senioritis.

The symptoms of senioritis include laziness, lack of ambition and wearing sweatpants to every single class. Unfortunately, I do not think there are a vast amount of cures for senioritis. The only one I am aware of is something called graduation.

But no matter how many hours we sleep away trying to pass the time before graduation gets here, these next nine weeks are going to go by pretty slow. So now is the time for us seniors to pull out all the stops.

We have to put into practice all of the skills that we learned in college. The skills we used to get through the toughest slums and lack of motivation to get through all of our classes.

Here we separate the puppies from the dogs, or the seniors from the underclassmen if you will.

The first thing you need to bring back from your underclassmen days of meal plans and waiting in line for the washing machine is something I think the kids are referring to these days as, “Netflix and chill”.

By “Netflix and chill,” I mean just relax! Calm down from all of the stress of your seven internships and 15-credit course load.

While right now it is extremely important to keep up on your grades and make sure you do well, it is also the last time that most of us are going to have child-like freedom.

Outside the walls of California Lutheran University there is a big, bad and scary world waiting for us. Take a few moments a week to relax and reflect. But do not get too far deep into a new Netflix series during finals week. There is absolutely no coming back from that.

Now another main focus most seniors suffering through senioritis experience the epidemic of missing too many classes.

Constantly rationalizing in your head why it is OK to miss your 10:30 a.m. class is something racing through all of our minds constantly.

Don’t let your beauty sleep or need for a second breakfast during that time keep you from going to a lecture. For a lot of us, undergraduate is the last time our entire lives are going to be dedicated to nothing but soaking up an education, so don’t squander this privileged time.

Try making a reward system out of going to class. An idea for this might be for every week that you attend all of your classes, you can reward yourself with an extra hour out at Taco Tuesday. Or you could settle with my personal favorite reward, a manicure.

It’s hard being so smart with almost having a bachelor’s degree. Sometimes a girl needs someone to paint her nails for her.

There is also another huge ingredient you are going to need if you are going to make it to graduation.

Coffee. Redbull. Caffeine of any kind will do.

If we’ve learned anything in these years of midterms, finals and term papers it’s that caffeine is your friend, a lifeline and partially the blood running through our veins.

There is nothing that a trip to Starbucks can’t fix when you’re on your third all-nighter of the week.

While Starbucks can’t necessarily wipe up all of your tears for you, they do supply napkins so that is something.

So seniors, live it up these next nine weeks. Lets make the most of it while we pass all of our classes. We’ve gotten this far, we can make it 66 more days. We’re all in this together.

Here’s to the Class of 2016. Good luck my friends. God speed.

Heather Tomaszewski
Guest Writer
Published March 9th, 2016