Senior spring

But recently, things in that arena seem to have run amok. Friends of mine have been breaking up right and left. Some have been dating for months, some for over a year. People talk about “expiration dates” and avoiding the pain of having to end a “real” relationship in June. More than five of my friends have cheated on someone recently. Friends have ended both romantic relationships and longtime friendships. It’s not quite an epidemic, but it is disappointing, especially because people seem to pass it off so nonchalantly.

The “senior spring” rhetoric has become a commonplace excuse among seniors for delving into the Street hook-up culture — even for those who would not call themselves single — for breaking up with significant others, and for shaking off old friends. We seniors say things like “It doesn’t matter; we’re graduating in June,” “I’m just looking for a good time” or “Live it up while you can!” While this mindset can be fun and liberating to some degree, it is also damaging to the friendships and relationships we have worked so hard to cultivate these past four years.

Some degree of falling out seems inevitable, though. A lot of the seniors are scared shitless: Many of us don’t know where we’ll be in just a few months. We are excited, too, to move into “the real world,” but we don’t know who our friends will be or where we’ll be working. Just how are we going to carry on without this place? I think this fear, and the seeming finality of everything, plays into this rhetoric and culture of senior spring as a time to let loose, go wild and potentially ruin friendships and relationships that ordinarily would remain stable. Maybe it’s the building thesis stress or the mortality of our college careers. Maybe it’s spring fever. I, for one, suffer from all of the above. I am frustrated, prematurely nostalgic, elated and terrified. And all of these things have swept me away from my normal corners of campus — and in some cases, from the friendships and relationships I have fostered over the past few months or years.

But this senior spring mentality can also serve as a great time to get back in touch with those people with whom we have fallen out of touch over the years of moving through dorms, residential colleges, eating clubs and other options of campus life. Whether it’s my nostalgia or spring fever, I haven’t been attending meals at my eating club on a regular basis for weeks. I meal-exchange with friends I haven’t seen in months. I sit in Small World people-watching. I hide in my carrel. I roam through the C-floor of Firestone. I went to a swim meet, a basketball game and a volleyball game. I even contemplated going to Aquinas fellowship dinners. I have suddenly remembered all of those people I have been friends with over the years, but who may simply be living in separate parts of campus now. I am trying to file away every single aspect of this place, with an emphasis on the parts that I have not become accustomed to seeing every day. I do not want to miss an opportunity to meet someone or to take part in an activity simply because I got stuck in one niche of campus. At the same time, I know I can’t just abandon friendships because I know the end is near.

Despite not knowing where we’ll be come June 2, we should keep in mind that we are a class. And apparently, something like one-third of us end up in New York for the next few years, anyway. When we buy into the senior spring mentality we are prone to damage our relationships that have the potential to carry on into the future; but, we also have the opportunity to rekindle relationships and to foster new ones. I’m not saying you shouldn’t end a sour friendship or relationship. I’m not saying you shouldn’t go out and “live it up.” But I am saying not to do it simply because of that overwrought senior spring mentality that is rooted in our fear of leaving this place — and each other — in a few short months.

Meaghan Byrne is a religion major from Princeton, N. J. She can be reached at mjbyrne@princeton.edu.