Final year of college: we’ve all changed so much. We’ve gone from being scared firsties to scared seniors. But hopefully we’ve learned something over the past four years and I would like to share a progress report concocted by myself about myself but will hopefully apply to other students here.

I woke up on April 1 and simply lay in bed for an hour. The fear was debilitating. I have one month left to finish my 395 independent study, sell all my old books and clothes, apply for jobs, manage my parents’ itinerary for graduation, finish a video project and also study for the various quizzes, papers and presentations required by my other classes.

We’re a week into March and the snow is melting. Before we know it, it’ll be time to pack up our rooms and to put on our graduation hats. But regardless of class year, there is all around frenzy to get that amazing job or internship. Since I’m so on top of my game and since Mount Holyoke News columnists are experts on everything, I’ve decided to draw up a few tips to help you find employment.

It hit me this weekend that in two or so months I’ll be returning home to Karachi for good and will probably not return to America for a while—if at all. I probably won’t be returning for reunions—in fact, my visa will have expired by then. Therefore, I really have been thinking about soaking in everything about Mount Holyoke (and the USA), as well as trying things I haven’t done yet.

Two weeks into my last semester at Mount Holyoke and battling a severe case of senioritis, I thought that reflecting on my MHC experiences might help motivate me and other students to get through this cold, cold Spring semester. While it’s arguable whether I’m any wiser than I was a year ago, there is knowledge and experience I’ve accumulated that is worth sharing.

Every so often, we hear from Mount Holyoke alumnae about how when they were students here on campus, life was very, very different from how it is now. There was a time when Mount Holyoke students did not procrastinate on Facebook. There was a time before OneCards were introduced. There was a time when Mount Holyoke students had to check in guests at the front desk of each dorm. There was a time when all the dorms had dining halls. And there was also a time when laptops were a distant dream and students used typewriters (gasp) to churn out their papers—and God forbid there were any typos that would require retyping twenty odd pages of work. While all of this is fascinating, it doesn’t necessarily make me want to be at Mount Holyoke a decade or two ago. But since I’m nearly halfway through my senior year at college, I can’t help but imagine that in the not so distant future I’ll be hectoring future Mohos about the good old days when I was an undergrad and Mount Holyoke didn’t boast these amazing amenities that I secretly wish we had now:

When feminist Judith Butler, acknowledged as one of the smartest people in the world, regularly produces convoluted, dense and just plain old bad writing, there is very little hope for us lesser mortals. Case in point is her winning entry in the 1998 “Bad Writing Competition”:

Am I the only one who gets annoyed when in the midst of a perfectly ordinary conversation someone throws in their entire schedule to prove how much work they’re doing?

While most of us are fairly familiar with the blog “Stuff White People Like”—it may be equally entertaining to a compile a list of things that truly characterizes what we at Mount Holyoke really seem to enjoy.

How did time fly by so fast? We were just getting to know each other when things got a little crazy and I decided that the answer to all my problems, i.e. homework and deadlines, was to nap as much as possible. Not the best solution in hindsight. But this academic year I spent most of my time between, before, after and dare I even say during class napping. The more hardcore students on campus who sleep less than 12 hours a week might frown upon this excessive sleep but for me this ability to doze off anywhere, anytime is a personal victory after two years of sleep deprivation.