Maintaining one’s sanity during senior year can be tough. With impending full-time job interviews, capstone class projects and work, it can be difficult to find time to recharge and hang out with friends.

The time has come for the class of 2015 to say goodbye to the hallowed halls of The University of Southern Mississippi. In less than two months, seniors will be taking everything we have learned, or think we have learned, in the past four years and applying it to the real world.

So, we should be excited, right? Wrong. Most of us are either freaking out or in denial of what is to come. For me, there are five struggles I deal with every day as a senior. 

1. Finding a job

We have always been told that college is the answer. We go to college, we get a job and make lots of money. It’s the American dream that’s been embedded into our minds for our entire lives. But nowadays there is so much more to that. We have to have the perfect GPA, the perfect resume and a large portfolio with a wide variety of work completed outside class.

And to top it all off, we have to be busy looking for jobs or applying to grad schools while also handling class, jobs and involvement.

2. Feeling old and out of place

During freshman year, I remember feeling like the queen of the kingdom. I spent hours on end with all of my friends hanging out in The Fresh, hopping down fraternity row and lying on Centennial Lawn to catch some rays and do homework. It seemed like every face on campus was a friendly face. 

However, these days, I barely have time to eat, much less plan a lunch date. And more importantly, most seniors live off campus, keeping us distant from the inner-workings of USM social life. All seniors have that day, or a couple if you’re like me, that you head to Seymour’s and leap for joy when you find someone to sit with. We’re old and we feel irrelevant, and it truly sucks.

3.  Figuring out who your real friends are

Another part of being a senior is realizing which friends are worth keeping throughout the rest of your life. But it’s pretty difficult to figure that out, when you barely have time to get a meal in. Time is precious as a senior, so you can’t be everyone’s “best friend” anymore. It just doesn’t work that way. 

So, you spend your precious time with the people that matter. And the struggle of that is all of the flak you get from not being at the parties anymore or never being available to go out for lunch with that one friend you can barely hold a conversation with.

4. Leaving your beloved student organizations

As an involved member of the student body, I am so sad to leave my student organizations. I can’t help but have the lingering feeling that every event I attend or every article I write is going to be one of my lasts. 

You see new people taking over positions you once held, new members getting excited about the things that once made you so happy and you suddenly feel like you are being pushed out, like everything you did was unimportant and that these new people will do it even better.

5.  No motivation

My final struggle as a senior is simply finding the energy to care. I am only in 12 hours this semester and I feel like I am in 24 hours. Senioritis is large and in charge. 

To help me keep myself in check, I drink lots of coffee, make sure I get eight or more hours of sleep every night and keep a countdown until graduation in viewing site at all times.

The struggle that is senior year is real. It’s tough, it’s sad and at times, it’s exhausting. But we have to remember that we came here for a purpose, to graduate. That time is finally near. So forget the hard feelings and remember you are accomplishing what you set out to do four years ago and relish in that moment.