Right now, I’m experiencing my first tidal wave of emotions, which hit as soon as I realized that March is almost over and that after March is April and after April is May and then I’ll be off without my parents buying my groceries or making sure the cable works. After this wave is the backlash of, “Oh my God, I’m running super low on underwear and I must make it to Kohl’s before I leave,” and, “Do I really know how to wash my own dishes?” and, “How the heck am I going to get my Advisory grade up from a C? How did I even do that?”

Stress causes me to think in overwhelming run-on sentences.

But what needs to come to mind amidst all this turbulence is the ‘after’. It’s hard to see past the brick wall of graduation, which seems to be both moving at an immeasurable speed and permanently fixed on the horizon. During all this panic and scholarship searching, I’ve found it calming to compile a list of what will be six months from now. A brief list of things to look forward to when I’m in college:

1. There is a significant decrease of careless, disrespectful classmates; it’s a trend that follows expensive education.
2. Independence is an obvious, yet oh-so-sweet, perk.
3. I get to choose my own bed time.
4. Travel opportunities are more frequent and less expensive.
5. I’m a new me. I could change my name or something, and no one would care; they wouldn’t even know of my legacy as Victoria. Say hello to Juanito Bonnema.
6. Do I have classes at 7:30 it the morning? Probably not all the time. Besides, I live at school, so going to school has turned into less of a deal.
7. If I want to fill my fridge with six different flavors of tropical Jell-O, there’s no one but my equally mischievous roommates to stop me.

Needless to say, there are many more things that I’m looking forward to during college. For example, my particular intended university never has classes on Fridays; I rub my eternal three-day weekend in all of your faces! That aside, if I were you, overwhelmingly-done-with-school senior, I’d start making a list like this ASAP. It’ll be the only thing to push you through the last three months without face planting on your bed in surrender. We can do this.