Ohio University is most definitely a heaven on earth. Big Mama’s diets mixed with a perfect attendance record at Liquor Pitchers are things I might mention on my résumé. Today, for one reason or another, it finally dawned on me… I’m a senior. It took me six weeks to realize I am about to leave my beloved Athens.
I feel like this happens to nearly everyone at one point in college. They wake up, look in the mirror and realize that they are rounding the final turn of what has most certainly been the greatest experience of their young lives. But when you get to your senior year, you start to realize that you are basically finished with a part of your life you’ll literally never get to experience again. I felt like standing on College Green and screaming, “WHY AM I OLD?!” If you’ve ever heard of the phrase “your biological clock is ticking,” today I felt my collegiate clock ticking and it’s about to hit midnight.
We live our four (or five… or six) years to excess. The end, no matter how long you delay it, still sort of sneaks up on you. One minute a guy is worried about which beer he’s getting for the weekend, the next he’s contemplating what in the hell he’s going to do with his life. That transition from happy, frivolous thoughts to heavy “life stuff” can make even the most level-headed senior dive to the bottom of a bottle faster than you can say “nine to five.”
My fellow seniors can still easily say “screw it” one more night and go out with the boys instead of spending a few more hours at Alden. Unfortunately, this lifestyle, like all glory, is fleeting. We’ll still be able to raise a little hell here and there and punch keys into shitty beers once we walk under the College Gate one last time, but it will never be with the same frequency or intensity.
More importantly, it will never be with all your best friends in the same place. Until this point of realization, we all live like young kings. You can skip tonight’s cram session at the library now, but you can’t drop the class of life. Every graduating senior knows that once their time comes they are going to be on the grind harder than a pre-med major who’s unfortunate enough to be in chemistry and bio at the same time.
To all my underclassmen Bobcats: Don’t let this fact trouble you now; just know that when you see a senior with drink in hand and a million mile gaze at the bar tonight, he’s drinking for a couple more reasons than celebration of time well-spent. Buy him a round, honor his time, continue to live your life to the absolute capacity and always cherish every memory you make here at the Harvard on the Hocking. Because before you know it, the bricks on Court Street will be a mere memory.
Phil Morehead is a senior studying health services administration and a columnist for The Post. Email him at pm189309@ohiou.edu.
