Someday, when you are nearing graduation, you will experience the last class blues.
The last class is a fencepost. Over the fence is post-graduation, and on this side of the fence is the last paper and the last test and the last lecture that you will experience as a college student.
It is normal to feel a bit sad after each of the lasts.
The last paper you are ever going to write for a class is happening soon or has happened. You might not care what grade you get. Or you might be haunting the Canvas page, waiting for the grades to drop. Both can be true. But the last paper is special.
The last test you are ever going to have to take in college is happening soon or has happened. Again, you might not care what grade you get. You might’ve calculated how many questions you can miss and still pass the test and the program. This last test can be special.
The last lecture you are ever going have to pay attention in and take notes in college is happening soon, or has happened. Whether you are a prodigious note-taker or not, these will still be your last lecture notes. Use them well in writing the last paper or studying for the last test.
The ever-present what do I do with all these notes and textbooks will flash before your mind. This question has different answers for different people. Heck, I still have notes from 1993 and my first nursing school.
You’ve experienced all this lasts before with other classes. But this is different, isn’t it? These are the lasts of the program. Attention and solemnity is appropriate for these.
Some people are saddened by this inevitable end to an era. The era of your college student career, that is. Some people are not and are ready to party. Some people are in between. Some people just want to sleep for a week. All of that is normal.
The gate? The one that separates the college life or paper and tests and lectures, and the post-graduation life?
That’s graduation.
Until grad school, that is.
This might not be your path. You might be a one-degree and done person.
But never, ever, ever, stop learning.
Dispatches from the Evening Shift 