Since we were teething, our parents breached the baby talk and taught us simple words, then the alphabet, and eventually how to count to 10. All of the proceeding phonics, multiplication tables, science fairs, SOH CAH TOA, summer reading, AP exams, SAT prep, has led seniors to this semester. The big kahuna.
To those seniors who chose to take the hard classes and a full course load, here’s to you. While traveling through the abyss of applying for jobs, some of you decided to take Latin for the first time, enroll in that advertising class that wasn’t mandatory for your major, and even wake up for the dreaded 8 a.m. section. Continue to take the opportunity to learn, especially without the pressure of grades that will come out after you walk across the graduation stage.
It takes a lot more discipline to do your reading as a senior distracted by job applications and thirsty Thursday. Remember how much you’ve learned since your freshman year at Hillsdale, let alone the days of book reports and math acronyms. You have more education and practice in being a student than you have had in your entire life. You know how to write papers into the double digits, study for exams, and live on little sleep.
But, while you take academia by the horns, be sure to spend those late nights talking with friends, afternoons visiting with professors, and the occasional call to your mom to agonize over job applications. Don’t hesitate to engage in all parts of the college experience. Continue to do the reading, study for the exams, and attend your classes. If there is a semester to up the ante, it’s this one.