Cherish those final weeks as long as you possibly can

It is rather disconcerting to be a second semester senior with intentions of graduating in the spring. If the eyes of the reader of this article happen to be firmly fixed in the body of such a student, standing on the precipice of such life changing decisions as those that involve the reality of life without college, then the ears found on the same head as those eyes are likely bombarded by one of the most deafening questions to be endured.
I find myself plagued by such a question. If I linger about campus in between classes, I hear it at least three times a day: “So…(awkward pause)…what do you plan on doing with the next ten years of your life?”
With the fumbling economy, options seem to be disappearing day by day. Nonetheless, many seniors plan on braving the job market after graduation. Other stoic intellectuals of the senior class intend to jump straight into graduate, law or medical school.
Even more seniors are bent upon exerting their minds, bodies and souls towards some form of community service: Teach for America, the Peace Corps or the Jesuit Volunteer Corps.
College is now one of many cultural rites of passage. We are given four years to make the most of the superficial bubble that is university life and then we are expected to go out into society and give of ourselves in such a way that the community is inclined to pay us back for our efforts. College seems to be that buffer between protective childhood and the absurdity of civilized adulthood.
Instead of being asked to go out into the forest to slay a large animal, we are asked to go out to some distant city to endure the company of all sorts of bizarre strangers, the presence of mind altering substances and varying degrees of academic pressures, all while maintaining our sanity.
If we succeed in boosting our GPAs, acquire the proper number of units and pay all of our obscenely expensive parking citations, then there’s nothing keeping us from graduating.
In between now and May, most of the seniors, or at least those that didn’t put off too many classes until their last semester, will be savoring every Taco Tuesday, Wednesday at Guava, Thursday at Comber and whatever other crazy experiences the weekend may bring.
While some groups of seniors diligently plan trips to Vegas, others plan on jumping out of perfectly good airplanes. There is of course the promise of Coachella looming in the distance, which is most certainly a  succulent carrot on the end of a stick.
Each of our respective college “bucket lists” aside, we’re all trying desperately to take Billy Madison’s intense words of advice to that cute little chubby boy to heart, cherishing it all as long as we can.
If anything, college has taught me how to live life in a more potent manner. Truly, the best is yet to come with time as we’re forced to face the reality of aging. I apologize if I scare any of you bewildered seniors, but we will all soon be nothing but part of one of those large photographs of graduating classes on the first floor of the University Center.
I strongly urge each of you, senior or not, to enjoy the present moment and absorb all of the beauty that life has to offer. Fretting about the future is undoubtedly a necessary activity, but don’t forget to smell the roses as well. Let their bittersweet aroma fill you to your heart’s content.