Spring is in the air! It’s getting warmer, the enos have appeared en masse, the Tennessee House of Representatives has all but abandoned the guise that they know what “separation of church and state” means and seniors are faced with the fact that they have to do adult things after next week.
Well, I should say most seniors. I, along with my fellow soon-to-be fifth years, have found the perfect solution to having to be a responsible adult — putting it off until next year! While everyone who will soon be walking the stage has to worry about finding a job, not moving back in with their parents, and paying off student loans, I’ll be here pretending to care about gen-eds and working on beating my siblings’ high score for student debt accrual.
I’m very conflicted about staying an extra year. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad I decided/was forced to take a fifth year. I get one extra year to build connections and prepare myself for my career, which is pretty nifty. It’s especially important in my case since I have barely a year’s experience in my current major.
Also, If I were graduating this semester, I can say with full confidence that I would have no idea what to do with my life. Now that I’ve found what I’m passionate about, I enjoy having a little extra time to get better at it before I enter the workforce. Plus, since most of my friends are either younger than me or in my same situation, I get another year of making memories before we go wherever it is we’re going.
The conflict I face is my crippling case of senioritis. After making the mistake of taking almost all gen-eds this semester, my motivation and drive to perform to my own standard of academic excellence has fallen sharply. If I haven’t been passionate about it, I likely haven’t put much effort into it.
This is a struggle I see many students face near the end of their college career. It’s easy to develop a cynical mindset after four years of classes, jobs and dealing with the “Big Orange Screw.” You get caught up in all the crap and lose sight of why you came here in the first place.
If you are staying a fifth year or even just feel sick of the whole college thing in general, don’t filter out all of the positive things around you. Honing in on the negative is a hard habit to break, and is one that could very possibly stick around after graduation.
A lot easier said than done, I know; it’s going to be a challenge for me to overcome it next semester. Hopefully, with the help of an awesome summer internship and a class load that I’m actually pretty excited about, I can get the most out of my fifth year.
And if you feel bad about not graduating on four years, don’t! Regardless of what the people handing out tassels with your expected graduation date at your freshmen orientation would lead you to believe, it’s completely normal to have to stay an extra semester or two.
Even though UT is a monstrous machine of a school, we’re all different. If you got out in four years, great! If you’re taking a victory lap, well that’s fine too; quality over quantity.
See you all next fall!
Kevin Ridder is a soon to be super-senior in environmental studies. He can be tweeted at @redinthehead99 or emailed at [email protected].
