The end is coming. Nine days until the end of the school year, the start of finals, and the emo concert of a lifetime.

You’ve worked hard for your success in and out of the classroom on this campus and you have but a few weeks until your mind erupts into that sweet, summer state of epiphany … if it hasn’t already. Perhaps you have already slipped into a state of “-itis,” be it freshman, sophomore, junior, senior or super-senioritis nipping at your toes like the concrete when you scuff the ground in your flip flops at your summer job.

Snap out of it. You’ve got work to do before you bolt out of Knoxville for three whole months of devastating elation and satisfaction.

Here is your challenge: Make a change before you leave for summer. Make a “nine day resolution” before you crash Hodges in order to ace those finals. Commit to something, promise something, amend something, do something. Do it for you, do it for someone else, do it for everybody. Just do it.

It can be simple, like actually doing your reading for your accounting class and preparing yourself for that final exam, because even though you only have to make a 66 for a B, a 90 on that test will earn a B+. It’s certainly attainable. Don’t sell yourself short after months of hard work in your classes. Suck it up and go to those office hours to make the grade. Your GPA will thank you later when the first number is a three instead of a two.

So maybe your GPA is beyond a two or a three and into the four territory, but you’ve been a little shady with someone over the course of the school year. You didn’t really call them back or you just failed to give them the time of day. Take this nine-day opportunity to reach out to them some way and spend a study day together (not studying, of course). Be the reason someone else had a great day. Chances are you won’t get to see a lot of your college friends over the summer, so get in touch and savor the moment.

OK, so if you’ve got a 4.0 and have kept perfect touch with everybody, you’re still probably not the cutest kid on the block. A few weeks ago, I wrote that you had plenty of time to get your body in shape for summer. Well, your time is up. Get into the gym quickly because you have roughly 40 days until Memorial Day weekend, and unless you live in Minnesota, it’s going to be hotter than Hades outside and you’ll be at the pool. You may not be a supermodel or a body builder in that time, but you can make a difference of a pound or two.

All right, you’re the dream child. Perfect grades, still talk to all of your friends every day, and you’re really, really attractive. Keep your room clean for a week and a half, save your spending money, go to bed earlier, or find some flaw in your lifestyle here that you can fix before it’s too late. If you can start a habit before you leave, it’s possible that you can pick up on that habit when you return. Make an effort to leave for home with a feeling of accomplishment and elevated personal integrity.

You don’t have to necessarily find something wrong with yourself to feel accomplished. Try expanding your horizons a little bit before you go home. There is never anything wrong with trying something new and it’s never too late to do so. Have a go at it. Maybe you’ve wanted to try that Mexican restaurant on Kingston Pike for ages but haven’t found your way over there yet. Or take your laptop to the amphitheatre and do your Facebook stalking outside. Go jump off of the diving board at the T-RECS pool; one bounce only, please. You won’t regret your decision to do something spontaneous and it will make your day exponentially more interesting.

I’ll quit making suggestions for you now. Everyone can come up with something they want or need to do. The point is no matter what that intended goal is, make the change and finish your school year with a bang. Do something that you’ve wanted (or needed) to do for a while and so vehemently avoided for one reason or another. Go out like a champion this summer and reach for glory in your everyday life in the simplest of ways.

And get a new pair of flip flops. You won’t slip so much.

— Oliver Casey is a sophomore in enterprise management. He can be reached at [email protected].