The Collegian
Thursday, March 28, 2024

The Chronicles of Senioritis: Passion... or lack thereof

As I woke up at 8 a.m. the morning after the senior toga social, I realize that I was the victim of a vicious sharpie attack (despite abiding by the golden rule of "not passing out with my shoes on"), and I couldn't help but smile. It's the little things like this that keep me going: the revelation that even after four years I find pranks amusing even when they are on me. Then there is the revelation that it has been four years, that this is my senior year. Reality sets in. It's 8 o'clock and I have class in an hour.

I mutter to myself and groan out of bed and into the shower to spend 30 minutes rubbing off the ink that engorges me, and the thought crosses my mind that I really don't want to go to class today. I shouldn't have to. It's poor management skills on behalf of the university to plan a toga social on a weeknight, right? I receive no sympathy from my roommate, whose perfect attendance to almost every class since freshman year is a tad bit sickening. I dress up and head to class to avoid his lectures.

This is where the idea of passion comes into play, passion and senioritis. Senioritis is a common medical condition that afflicts 100 percent of seniors (in a statistical survey of myself). Symptoms are drowsiness and...well really just drowsiness. I have spent the past two weeks watching my roommate cram over GRE study packets, while I wait to receive my Amazon order of an LSAT study guide. As seniors it becomes alarmingly obvious that you have to buckle down and actually work, regardless of whether or not you went to the senior social the night before. Surprisingly it took me a long time to realize that the University of Richmond was not a cheap school, and I am paying for an education, so it doesn't make sense to slack off and not take advantage of every opportunity afforded to me here.

At the same time, I have passions for a ton of other aspects of college. It's hard to balance these passions and the passion to succeed in school. I find myself participating in the Sunday tradition more frequently than I should (where the 21 year olds -- because I would never condone underage drinking -- finish everything that is left), playing basketball for a few hours every day during the week that I should put into school work or even just talking with my apartmentmates about literally pointless things, such as the superior flavor of Juwana's Domino pizza to Star's. It's all about balance though, because in the grand scheme of things, college is just as much about social development as it is getting an education.

Richmond does a great job shamelessly pushing passion by guilt-tripping me into worrying about schoolwork and forcing me to face that the real world that is just around the corner.

Whether it be on a coffee sleeve or the featured video on the admissions website, Richmond wants to "find students' passion." It is a tad propaganda-like, and I am sure it would cause a bit more of an uproar if the message wasn't valid and uplifting. So as the kid that I had that one class with stares at me from the coffee I sip on, and tells me where he find his passion, I spend mornings like this, a Friday morning with a pounding hangover, wondering where my passion really is.

Contact contributor Zach Russell at zach.russell@richmond.edu

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