COLUMN: Behold the senior year bucket list
For you Aggie seniors out there, the clock is ticking. Brace yourselves. Graduation is coming. As you scramble to get your commencement robes and conquer your last round of midterms and finals, here are a few senior bucket list items for you. These are practically moral imperatives, folks.
1. Become a True Aggie. Many students have already achieved the glorious title of True Aggie by their senior year, but plenty save that rite until their last year. It’s never too late to ascend the Block A under a brilliant full moon. Think about it: Your diploma will be just a piece of paper, but your True Aggie card will be an immortal piece of paper.
2. Give senioritis a swift kick in the derriere. Seniors, you have just six weeks left in your college education. Congratulations for getting to this point:Your hard work and perseverance through classes, internships, lab work, group projects and countless all-nighters is genuinely a credit to you. You’ll take your experiences and your abilities – not only to learn, but to teach yourself – with you throughout the rest of your life. Here’s the bucket list task: Kick senioritis out of your life for the next six weeks. Choose to care about your last weeks of school, rather than checking out early and cheating yourself out of the opportunity to finish this collegiate marathon proud and strong. If you choose to invest in the last weeks of school, rather than go missing in action when the end is just in sight, that walk up onto the stage at graduation will be all the sweeter.
3. Hit your favorite Logan hotspots one last time. Go hike the Wind Caves up Logan Canyon and relish the first vestiges of spring. Take an evening walk through historic downtown Logan and buy yourself a guiltily oversized bag of Bluebird chocolate caramels. Take a few friends to Aggie Ice Cream and see who can survive the longest against a triple scoop of Aggie Bull Tracks. Whether your current feelings toward Logan are affectionate or exasperated, enjoy these last few weeks here. You’ll look back fondly on your time in Logan down the road.
4. Write your mentors a note. Somewhere during your journey as an Aggie, you’ve had a professor who went above and beyond the call of duty. Perhaps they helped you find your academic passion; maybe they mentored you in research; perhaps they simply reached out to you when you needed a hand. Show them your appreciation. Write them a short handwritten note – it doesn’t have to be “The Iliad,” guys – and let them know they made a difference. As much as our Aggie faculty enjoy research and teaching, the thing that makes them truly awesome is how much they care about connecting with and helping individual students. Let’s do our part to say thank you.
5. Watch a sunrise/sunset on Old Main Hill. The first reason to do so is because Old Main Hill is one of the loveliest spots on campus, and the tranquility there at sunrise and sunset will get you through the last leg of the marathon. The second reason is because it’s an excellent spot to reflect on the fact that you’ve just spent four-plus years attending an excellent institution of higher education. That’s a privilege denied to many. A little gratitude for the past does wonders to inspire optimism for the future.
– Briana is a political science major in her last semester at USU. She is an avid road cyclist and a 2013 Truman Scholar. Proudest accomplishment: True Aggie. Reach Briana at b.bowen@aggiemail.usu.edu.