As eternal as time and almost as inevitable as death, the senior slide has wrapped another hapless class into its Netflix-heavy embrace.
What few articles pop up on Google when searching this malady relate the phenomenon to high school and the dreaded effect it can have on college admission. Even Urban Dictionary, our most vaunted source of definitions for collegiates, keeps the term confined to high school. I must be a late bloomer – after hanging out somewhere in the vague netherworld that is “not quite a 4.0” for my entire life, I’ve slipped into the wholly non-sarcastic “ah good, a C” stage.
I’ve spent my entire college career with my hands in twelve other pies already, distracted as could be. Surely, if any were to avoid the slide, it’d be the students who were already smart slackers. Yet here I am, late assignments in half of my classes and mediocre test scores in the other.
The hell of it is, I don’t feel bad about it.
Here’s the thing: I’m not just binging “Arrow” on Netflix – although I DID do that, along with “Bob’s Burgers.” I did a few internships – plural – this summer, along with some other industry work.
I returned to school with four measly classes to mop up, and there are far more daunting things just past them on the horizon that worry me far more.
The specter of a second internship looms; a fabled real life, adult, non-video store clerk job is needed immediately after. My loans are waiting – I just got an email about them today. I filtered that particular bit of e-postage into another folder so it wouldn’t stare at me with all those zeroes, but I KNOW its there. If I had a bed frame, I’d suspect it of hiding under my box spring every night.
It’s daunting knowing that in a few short months, I’ll be submerged and drowning in debt, probably for the next few years. Making money doesn’t happen fast (But the lottery seems like a good investment).
This slippage isn’t all “Arrow” abs and H. Jon Benjamin-voiced mayhem – it’s a scramble to prepare for the end. Sure, a final project is important, but so is how I pay for the class with the project.
It’s difficult enough to get a job right out of college when you’re trying; am I really going to focus more time on the project than my post-graduate paycheck? If I’m splitting my focus 80-20, that 80 is going towards the more lasting bit. If a job cares more about my murderer’s row of C-pluses than it does about my stacked resume, the priorities there are off before they’ve even interviewed me.
That being said, they may have their reasons. They me see those C-pluses and think “Slacker.”
At times, rightfully so.
I’ve reached the point in my college career where there is no return. When I screw up, I cannot go back and fix it. It’s there because next semester, I won’t be here.
Preparing for all of this is overwhelming. Applying for jobs that I can’t take until January are clouding my academic judgement.
What am I to do if I graduate and still I’m in a hole without a career advancement?
Not all senior slides are the same. Applications, interviews, resume building and more just seem more important than a random quiz right now.