When senior year of college or grad school hits, you realize that you have very little room left to figure things out. You find yourself wishing you had a little more time with your friends and a little less uncertainty about the future. Senior year is a short bridge between two very different worlds, one which you are both hesitant and eager to cross. What can you do in the short span of time you have left to make the most of your senior year? In reflecting on my final year of college and law school, I’ve drawn up this list of a few suggestions.

1. Pursue a few friends fiercely. You make a lot of friends in college, but you can only keep a few when you leave. As soon as everyone graduates and moves away, even the best of friendships become harder. Take it upon yourself to pursue a select group of friends fiercely. You’ll need each other even more when you leave college. It gets lonely out there.

    

2. Pin down your devotional disciplines. One of the things you’ll miss most about college, or even grad school, is all the time you had. As busy as school gets, life after school only picks up more speed. It’s important to know how to slow down and spend time with God. If regular patterns of devotions are not already built into your schedule, you’ll find it even harder to read and pray when time becomes even more evasive.

    

3. Put your roots down at a local church. Out-of-town students sometimes wonder if it’s worth becoming a member of a local church if they’ll be leaving just a few years later. Yes, it’s worth it! Church will be one of your biggest sources of community post-college. Get in the habit of regularly attending and serving at a local church. Students who sacrifice church for success in school will find it even easier to sacrifice church for success in their career.

    

4. Prepare for a soul-searching job hunt. It can take months of applications, interviews, emails, and rejections before you land your first job. Every employer wants experience but none wants to offer it. As you see your peers post about their jobs and various life updates, it can be very difficult to not compare your path to theirs and envy their progress. Brace yourself by placing your identity firmly in the hands of Christ, not a corporation.

    

5. Pray to get the job God wants. So many people arrive at their dream job only to find out it isn’t everything they thought it would be. Just like the tourists who get Paris Syndrome when they discover the French capital is not the overly-romanticized picture they envisioned, professionals can be just as easily disillusioned when they land their new jobs. Pray to end up in the location, position, and environment God has for you.

    

6. Preserve memories of God’s provision. The challenges that lie ahead of you will be lighter to bear with reminders of God’s faithfulness in your past. Write down moments in which God has blessed you, surprised you, and revealed Himself to you. Find objects or pictures that symbolize what God has accomplished in your time at school. Refer back to these reminders when times get tough and God’s hand is not as visible.

    

7. Pass on the lessons you’ve learned to the next generation. There are many younger students who can be spurred on to do greater things for the Kingdom through an exhortation from an upperclassman. Don’t let the lessons you learned go to waste upon graduation. Inspire those who come after you to live fully unto God during those deceptively short years of school.
   
   
8. Persevere through your final year. Finish your final year strong. Don’t get too caught up looking forward to what’s ahead that you miss what you have. While others check out early and throw in the towel, remain steadfast. So many good things come to ruin for lack of a strong finish. This is your final chance to wrap up all your efforts and make a lasting impact. Don’t blow it because of senioritis!

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens” (‭‭Ecclesiastes‬ ‭3‬:‭1)‬. Savor this season, friend.