Reliving College Senior Week

It was exactly one year ago today that I had one of the best weeks of my life — College Senior Week. For fellow graduates of Marist College (as well as many other schools across the U.S., I’m sure), this is a week full of fun events all leading up to graduation.

The influx of photos, statuses and tweets that are taking over my news feeds are making this realization hard to ignore. The fact that my younger brother is graduating from college this weekend also isn’t helping. Instead of sulking and being jealous (all of us college grads are doing this, let’s be honest), I’m going to celebrate the one-year anniversary with some photos and stories. Enjoy!

Monday: Sickness

I arrived back to campus after spending the weekend bringing about 50% of my clothes and items home. I highly suggest anyone who is moving out of a dorm or apartment does the same, it saves a lot of time and hassle on the actual move-out day. Although I came back with less clothing, one thing I did bring back with me was a terrible cold. I’m talking the “blow my nose every 30 seconds, coughing like a smoker, fever over 100” kind of cold. Right as my senior week starts, of course. Instead of participating in a dorm crawl with my friends, I decided to get some rest and try to get better for the rest of my week.

Tuesday: Bar Crawl

Although I was still feeling like death and had a fever well over what it should be, I wasn’t going to NOT go to my Senior Week bar crawl. It started out pretty rough, but after an hour or two, I started to feel a little better and had a lot of fun. I think we set a world record for fitting the most people in a cab that afternoon.

Wednesday: House Crawl

All the “fun” from the previous night mixed with my sickness called for a rain check. Literally. It poured the entire day, which was just another reason why if I wanted to make it to graduation, I should stay in. My friends went and said it wasn’t anything special, so I didn’t feel all that bad that I had missed out.

Thursday: Formal

Here’s a confession: I love getting dressed up for special occasions. Prom was a huge deal for me (hello, I was Prom Queen!), so my college senior formal was an excuse to shop for a dress and spent time doing my hair and makeup extra-well.

It was the first nice, non-rainy day of that week, which was a blessing. We were able to take photos outside and get to the venue all before it started downpouring again.

I went to formal with my now-boyfriend, although we weren’t officially dating at the time. I guess you could say it was our first official “date” and I couldn’t have thought of a better person to spent it with.  ♥

Friday: Ace Enders Concert

I like to think that my favorite singer/person on the planet Ace Enders playing a show in Poughkeepsie the night before my graduation was some sort of gift from the music Gods. It just had to be.

So my brother and I got tickets for the acoustic show, which came with passes for a meet-and-greet. During the meet-and-greet, Ace asked us if anyone have anything exciting to say. No one said anything, so I blurted out “I’m graduating from college tomorrow morning!” After a round of congrats from everyone, someone asked me which song Ace should dedicate to me. So I named my favorite song and laughed, not thinking this was serious at all.

Low and behold, near the end of the show, Ace pointed to me in the crowd, and said “This is actually for you for your graduation”. Ace Enders just dedicated my favorite song to ME. I could die happy now.

My new friend John, who was standing next to me, JUST so happened to catch it all on film, so I can relive the moment whenever I please. Turn the volume up real high and listen right at the beginning. And yes, that’s my annoying voice saying “thank you”.

Saturday: Graduation

I didn’t cry. I thought I would. Many others did, but I think I was just so shocked that this was actually happening  to me. I wondered if I would stay in touch with friends (some of us do, some of us don’t), if I would ever get a job (I eventually did, after a summer of working my ass off), and if my close relationship with a male friend would turn into something serious (it did- we’ve been dating for almost a year now!)

While I certainly had my shares of ups and downs during the four years I spent at college, I left with a lot of memories, lessons learned and connections made (notice how I left out the part about severe debt- I’m trying to be positive here!)