Time flies when you’re having fun — and then it’s senior year. The pressures of academic decisions are lessened, but the ever-looming threat of joining the real world hangs overhead. So before you freshmen look at seniors with jealousy in your eyes, I would like to clarify that senior year has its flaws.

1 It’s your last chance.

This is it. There’s no “maybe I’ll skinny dip in the Rec pool next year,” or “I’ll take that psychology class next fall.” Everything that you wanted to do has to happen now or it won’t at all. While signing up for classes, seniors scroll past cool ones and they know they’ll never take them. All those possibilities are over.

2 Bars

You spend three years dying to turn 21. As soon as you do, you’re broke. House parties are infinitely cheaper than going out to the bars. Maybe someone asks you to cough up $5 for drinks at the door, but otherwise you’re taking shot after shot and playing game after game of beer pong for practically nothing. Five shots and four beers at a bar will clean your wallet out. Besides, three months into the bar scene and you figure out they’re mostly the same: too loud to talk to your friends and your feet hurt from walking everywhere. Seriously seniors, start throwing more house parties.

3 Graduation question

“What am I doing after graduation?” I don’t know. No one knows. When was the last time someone made a commitment like that nine months in advance? Ask me in April like a normal person. From freshman through junior year, everyone asks you what your major is or if you’re interning anywhere. But as soon as people find out you’re a senior, every adult everywhere always asks, “Do you have a job after graduation?” No I don’t, but thanks for bringing it up. I’ve just started lying and coming up with crazy stories. Try it out, it’s pretty fun.

4 Senioritis

College senioritis is infinitely different from its high school relative. For one, even if you say you don’t care you actually kind of do, and you still get As and Bs your last semester. Some of you don’t mind it as much because subconsciously you know you have four or more years in school left for those prestigious degrees. For those of us who are experiencing the last time our butts will be in a school until we have kids, it’s a daily struggle to even bother. Every time an extra chapter is assigned or a teacher brings up an essay all of us think, “None of this will matter!” And never has the phrase “Cs get degrees” rang truer.

5 All decisions final

If you take that job in Cleveland, Ohio, does that mean for the next 30 years you’ll live in Ohio? Seniors look at their significant other and have to ask if they want to break up or stay with them after graduation, and if so is this the person who you want to be with for the rest of your life? Do you even want to start dating since graduation is coming up and the future is so uncertain? It feels like every decision we make in the coming months we have to live with for the rest of our lives. Talk about foreboding.

Senior year has its perks, but if you aren’t a senior, don’t try to rush into it, just cherish your college time.

— Michelle A. Monroe is a journalism senior. She can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.