Permanent Uphill Slope

What's your major? Oh, English...and Spanish...Ok, so what kind of job do you think you can get with that?

Do you even have plans for next year? Can you believe the

best four years of your life are almost over? WHOAAAA!. I'm

pretty sure every senior got to hear some version of that conversation over break (except for the business majors

whose starting salaries are higher than I will probably

ever hope to reach-so, hire me some day?). But no matter what your major, your future plans, or your lack of future plans, it is hard to hear people say that we're almost

past the prime of our lives when we're only a quarter of the way through it. So, I have a different philosophy: a permanent uphill slope. I simply can't settle with the idea that life is all downhill from here, so I'm not going to let it. Since I can't keep riding the college train for the rest of my life, I have tried to think of my favorite parts of the college experience and how I can bring them with me to the real

world. It will be different, but exciting in a non-broke, my-landlord- actually-answers-my-calls kind of way.

Xavier Basketball It doesn't get much better than camping out with your 10 closest friends, in a tent that may or may not collapse on you in the middle of the night, and a mosh

pit dance party taking over Cintas til the wee hours of the morning. It's especially worth it to watch Xavier beat UC in both home Crosstown Shootouts since the senior class has been here. The sad part: It will no longer be acceptable to paint up blue for the UC game as alumni. The upside:

Once we buy young alumni tickets, we won't have to worry if

we are getting into the big games or not. Also, without a thesis or other homework to hold us back, (not to mention

a job bringing in some extra spending money) we can

follow Xavier all the way through the NCAA tournament!

Road Trips Driving 18 hours to Florida, and 18 hours back. Inching near a cliff to reach the cabin in Gatlinburg. Tennessee. Trying to find a street that's not blocked

off for the Kentucky Derby. Plane tickets haven't really been

an option in college, so my roommate's Civ-Civ has put on

some serious miles. There have been so many hours of jamming to playlists over and over as we cross through multiple states to find our way to and from the Nati. The sad part: we may not be in the same city, or even same state, as many of our road trip companions. The upside: we will now have all kinds of new destinations to road trip to and

friends to visit that have moved to other parts of the country.

Who knows, we may even get to sleep on a bed! Dana's

This pretty much goes without explanation. No Xavier experience is complete without all the memories, or lack

of memories, shared at Dana's. No matter where one starts the night, all roads lead to the same place. You know it's going to be crowded and it may take you 45 minutes to get a drink, but you know you're bound to find all your friends

and soon-to-be friends there. The sad part: once we graduate, everyone at Dana's is going to start being a lot

younger than us, and we probably won't find as many of our

friends there as the years go on. The upside: overall, it's

the people that make the experience, so don't lose connection with them. And, there are always reunion weekends to sign your name on the Dana's wall just

one more time. Permanent uphill slope.