Is “Pomp and Circumstance” running through your head at all hours of the day? Are you practicing walking in high heels or tying the tie that has been in your closet for years in order to avoid embarrassment? Or can you not focus on anything except the upcoming year and the millions of items on your bucket list?
If this is the case, then you must be a graduating senior.
With the winter months approaching, many students are finishing up their last needed classes. The long hours of studying and lack of social life have come to a well-deserved end as graduation is marked for Dec. 20, 2014.
The last thing any student wants to do is plan and gather the necessary things to graduate with - after all, you just spent over four years planning and organizing. But with great pride for yourself comes great planning.
These four stages are designed to help that graduating senior get over the last hump before graduation and enjoy their ending time as a college student before heading off into the adult world.
1. Excitement about the New Year
Graduating college is one of the major accomplishments during a person’s lifetime. Remember how excited you were graduating from high school? Take that excitement and triple it.
Unfortunately, there are fewer new friends and less parties compared to graduating from high school, but you remember to take the accomplishment of graduating from college and run with it.
With that new adult smell cascading around, you may start to wonder what a non-college life looks like. Maybe you are going to grad school to continue your education, or you are planning a trip around the world. Either way, the New Year has endless possibilities and only you can decide what path your life will take.
2. The Final Grade Struggle
At this point, the dreaded senioritis has kicked in. You would rather spend the last few months reminiscing with your college friends than studying for finals, but you have to remember that you haven’t graduated yet.
The worst thing that could happen to a soon-to-be graduating senior is failing a class that you need for graduation and having to watch all your friends walk across the graduation stage while you register in the fall for that one class you failed.
The best thing to do in order to ensure graduation is just pass the class. Depending on the particular class, that doesn't necessarily mean with an A or a B, just enough to get the full credit.
You have had four or more years to develop a study habit, by now it should be ingrained into your brain to the point where one final semester won’t make or break you.
3. The Final Countdown – preparing for graduation
As of today’s date, there is exactly one month until the graduation ceremony. That means endless lists of people to invite and places to visit so that all the family can have that over-stretched grin picture to document the moment.
To make graduation as perfect as possible, there are a few items that are essential.
Ordering regalia includes the cap, gown and tassel needed for the academic dress of the graduation ceremony. These can be purchased now until Dec. 20 at the EMU Bookstore.
If you want to save a little extra cash for that after-graduation party, order regalia in November or at the Grad Fair on Dec. 8 and Dec. 9 for discounted prices.
The undergraduate gown is classic eagle green, but the tassel corresponds to the college you are graduating from. For example, white is for the College of Arts and Science.
This means you should triple check which college you will receive your diploma from to make sure everything is correct.
Tickets for the graduation will be available only from Dec. 8 to Dec. 16. Don’t forget to order your tickets between those dates, or you will have a sad cheer section when your name is announced.
4. The Big Day
Graduation is a moment of celebration between friends, family, and the guy whose last name is in alphabetical order next to yours. It’s a time to forget all the dumb things you did the past four years and focus on the future.
Graduation may make you nervous and start to sweat bullets, but just remember to breath and have fun. After all, graduation is something you earned.
In order to reduce the possibilities of embarrassment, practicing walking up and down the stairs in high heels or new dress shoes may be a good idea.
There is always that one person who falls, but nobody wants to end up being “that person.”
With these four stages to keep in mind, you are ready to graduate and take that first leap into a new life.
Congratulations class of 2014. You deserve it.