The phrase “senior moment” can usually be associated with an elderly person that has a lapse in memory, logic or mental function. When I hear this phrase, I tend to think of my grandfather and his inability to remember that he has downloaded, printed and mailed the same blonde joke to me at least once a year for the last five years of my life. Sorry Grandpa, the punch line isn’t funny anymore.
At DePauw University, we tend to think of a senior moment a bit differently. This moment could occur to any student in their final academic year as one begins to realize that their days at DePauw are numbered. Last Monday, I came face-to-face with my very own senior moment.
On a day that wasn’t particularly special, I became irrationally overwhelmed by the uncertainty of my future, the amount of work in my senior seminar and the pressure to maintain my social calendar. Why, of all moments, did this realization strike me on a perfectly normal Monday afternoon? My life hadn’t seemingly changed between the moment of feeling okay and the moment my stomach began to twist into knots and my eyes clouded themselves with reluctant tears. But it had. I had fallen victim to my first senior moment: the moment I could finally comprehend that everything and everyone I have known and loved for four years were going to change, soon.
You see, the senior moment isn’t simply anxiety over the 50-page paper we have to write. I mean, come on, we’re seniors. We know how to write a decent paper by now or at least mastered the art of convincing our professors we do.
The senior moment isn’t necessarily about finding a job. Everyone is figuring out their future plans or, at the very least, has an idea of where they’d like to be after graduation.
No, the senior moment is much more complex than that. It is an emotional state that consists of being completely vulnerable, panicked and eager all at once due to the adventures that lie ahead and the apprehension of leaving in order to experience them. After four incredible years at DePauw, we’re expected to walk away and let it all go.
If you haven’t already experienced your senior moment don’t worry, it will come soon enough. If you’ve had your moment, or two, rest assured that you are not alone. That moment you begin to feel overwhelmed or anxious about your future, pause and breathe. Spend a minute reflecting, not on what DePauw expects for your future, but rather, on what DePauw has already given to your past. Think of that amazing internship you experienced, the country you were finally able to visit or the professor that really inspired you. Because in-between the all night study sessions, the time your heart was broken or when it seemed you just couldn’t get it together, our lives have been good and full at DePauw. Full of meeting spectacular people when you least expected it, nights you held a conversation until the sun came up, ordering Marvin’s (or Pizza Dude) after midnight, drinks at The Duck on a Tuesday night and DePauw proving to you each year that life only gets better.
I know time is ticking but don’t let that take away a single moment of happiness that is left to be had on this campus. There is still enough time to make plenty of new moments and I encourage you to seize each and every one of them.
DePauw hasn’t failed us yet seniors, and I have a feeling that it is saving the best for last.

-Hayden is a senior Media Fellow from Logansport, Ind.