Back to Classes!

Well, I have finally started the last year of my undergraduate experience and now I must officially call myself a "fourth year". Doesn't seem too long ago that I was first exploring the grounds here, desperately attempting to find my first class and trying to figure out that MRY meant Maury Hall, home to the International Studies Office but also where I would be taking a religion course. Now, well versed in the campus, I find myself walking around grounds as a fourth year, familiar with it all and constantly running into first year students completely lost and frantically trying to find their first classes. (Don't worry, I usually calm them down and point them in the right direction.) I'm also well versed in classes: I know which ones actually require you to do the reading and for which ones you don't really need to buy books. I know which professors will let you switch around your exam schedule if you want to and which will freak out if you're 30 seconds late for class. I know that even though professors threaten to give pop quizzes, they probably won't remember to do so. It's great to finally have a schedule where my weekends start at noon on Thursday. It's great to have class events planned at bars. It's great to take classes like "Memory Distortion" and "Unforgettable Lecture Series: the Best Lectures of UVA" and do an independent study with my favorite professor. It's great to have two final exams and one paper to do for the entire semester. It's great that my books totalled only $75.90. It's great... to be a fourth year! But at the same time, it's weird to think that I only have 8 months left. It's weird that I just finished my "Last First Day of School". It's weird that instead of taking 5 classes, I am taking 3 and doing an internship at an organization in Charlottesville. And while it's a bit weird, it's also really cool that students in their fourth year spend every minute as though it's their last. Every minute is precious. The Last Home Football Game. The Last Dining Hall Brunch. The Last Spring Break. The Last Final Exam. I'm so jealous of the first years here- they have four incredible years ahead of them. I just wish I had taken advantage of every day that I had here, but now, I guess I'll just do my best in making fourth year the best yet!