Some parting advice

Many people say that the four years you spend in college are the most influential, most formative, most memorable, and most important years of your life. But four years is not really a long time. For someone with an average lifespan, it comprises a mere five percent of one's time here on the planet earth. Two things immediately popped into my mind upon processing this information.

1) It is wonderful that I have thoroughly enjoyed my first three and a half years, and 2) Are you kidding me?! I only have five more months until the best period of my life comes to an abrupt and definitive end! Ahhh!

As my breaths became more exaggerated and my head involuntarily began to sway from side to side I realized I was going into a frenzied panic. I stumbled over to the nearest chair, sat down, and began to brainstorm preventive measures that would inhibit future incidences of pre-graduation hyperventilation and light-headedness.

My first choice was to drop all of my current classes and to enroll in only three credits next semester. This would leave me just short of the 34 credits needed to graduate and I would be forced to take a fifth year. I loved the idea. And to my surprise, my parents gave me their full support. However, it became apparent that option one was not feasible when my Dad told me that it would be me, and not him, who would foot the extra $40,000 bill.

Forced to accept the fact that only five more months of fun and excitement remain in my life, I figured I should make the most of them. At that point I compiled a list of things I wanted to do before graduating in order take advantage of the little time that remained. But, in order to think of all the things that would make me happy I also needed to think of the things that had made me happy. The following is the complete list of what I came up with. I have already done many of these suggestions and will hopefully complete the rest before May.

So here you have it: my keys to a great Tufts experience.

Take at least one ExCollege class each of your four years at Tufts. Be a peer-leader or pre-orientation leader. Go to the LCS and FAO Schwartz Semiformals. Have a party in your dorm room without getting caught. Live in an off-campus apartment with your best friends (preferably in Somerville). Go abroad. Participate in or attend an EPIIC symposium. Go to homecoming to support the football team, men's and women's soccer teams, and to partake in the festivities of tailgaters village. Go to a Tufts basketball game. Start a club (don't worry if it serves no real purpose, the Senate and Judiciary will give you money for almost anything). Go to an a cappella O show. Sing in the Jills' dream solo reception at the end of the fall semester.

Pay exorbitant amounts of money to go on spring break to a tropical location. Rent movies from the library (they have a surprisingly wide selection, ranging from old classics to recent releases). Go to a film series movie. Take in the scenic view from the seventh floor patio of Cabot. Go sledding on the President's lawn. Slip and fall on black ice while walking down the hill (this may not seem like a good thing, but it is great to reminisce about since almost every Tufts student has done it. At least I hope I'm not the only one). Make it a habit of sneaking a taste of the scrumptious candy at Jumbo Express. Slyly sneak food or a drink into the library. Avoid the hectic, noisy, hard-to-concentrate atmosphere of the computer lab by using the downstairs computers.

Go out on a date to the North End. Go to at least one Celtics, Bruins, and Red Sox game. Lock yourself out of your dorm room while going to the shower. Realize that you're not weird and that it's perfectly normal to feel sick after eating in the dining hall. Navigate your way through the secret Dewick-Hodgdon tunnel. Save money by printing out papers from the computer lab or library (print while the printing is good and before the asinine $.10 fee is implemented). Take a class with Professor Gerald Gill in the history department. Take creative writing with Professor Joe Hurka. Get to know your favorite professor or advisor. Go over to a professor's house for dinner. Pull an all-nighter.

Watch The Graduate during the summer before your senior year. Understand that as a liberal arts student with no direction you are justified in freaking out. Write for one of the campus publications. Dance in TDC, Spirit of Color, or Sarabande. Try out for a theatrical production. Petition for the repositioning of the two awkwardly located gates found between the campus center and the library. Forget about all of your work and party hard during Spring Fling. Paint the cannon. Go to senior gala. And finally, in the frigid December cold, run like you've never run before: naked, in the Naked Quad Run.