It’s finally March again, which typically means three things for me: college basketball has commandeered my television until April, baseball has once again graced this great country with its presence and my pasty-white legs will finally get to see the sun again.

This year is much the same as years past (although the weather is putting a damper on my shorts-wearing), until you factor in the constant heartattack that comes with the realization that in three months I will be a college graduate. In three months I have to be an adult. In three months I have to get a big-girl job. And heaven knows I have absolutely no idea where I’ll be in three months.

There is only one word that could come close to accurately describing how I feel about these next three months – terrified.
My only comfort is in knowing that I’m not alone. This terror is plaguing not only me but most, if not all, seniors in the graduating class of 2014. It’s written across our faces, plain as day.

It’s in the bags under our eyes from late nights of senior projects, résumé building and job applications. It’s in the frazzled hair and sweatpants that have replaced our everyday wardrobes. It’s in the slight grimaces that cross our faces as someone asks, “What are you going to do when you graduate?” And it’s the blank stares that come over us as we rack our brains for a suitable, yet still noncommittal answer.

We are deer in the headlights”¦and the headlights are ever-nearing.

If you know a senior who’s currently going through the process of becoming a bonafide adult, you may feel helpless. You can’t write their résumés for them. You can’t fill out their applications for them. And you can’t go to their interviews for them. (Be honest, we all saw Stepbrothers – total disaster.)

Even though you can’t do the big things for them, you can do small things that will have a huge effect. First off, this is college. We all love free food. We love it even more when we’re stressed out. Bake cookies, offer to cook dinner or take a friend out for the night to escape their responsibilities. Offer words of encouragement or a shoulder to cry on during a busy or difficult week. The possibilities are endless and the impact it will have is indescribable.

And if you ARE like me, pulling your hair out a little more each week and preparing to curl up in the fetal position at any moment, just breathe. We are students at an incredible institution, with incredible professors and advisors that desperately want to see us succeed. We are going to be just fine.

So, do what you need to do to get where you’re going, wherever that may be. But don’t forget where you are. This is our last semester of college, our last chance to live it up with our closest friends. Don’t get so busy preparing a life for the future that you forget to live in the now.