Everything Penn State seniors will miss

We won’t be setting our alarms at 6:45am this summer to make sure we get our season tickets

Whether we want to admit it or not, graduation This is just a short list of the things we, seniors, have to say goodbye to, but it makes us realize that Penn State will always be home.

Cheap drinks at the bars

This one is really important. If you’ve ever had the opportunity to go out and buy drinks at a real bar and not at a college campus, you probably realized that alcohol is expensive as hell. Feel like drinking a nice, classy drink in the city? Think again because you’ll be spending well over $10 per drink. Not only that, but cover for each bar is going to hit you like a brick as well. Cover here ranges from $3-$5 for most bars, and if you’re smart, you’ll go somewhere like Pickles or Primanti’s and pay nothing to get in. We have it made here, so take advantage of it while you can.

Walking by Old Main every day

You walk by it almost every single day, you see it on someone’s Snapchat story multiple times a week and you’ve most likely seen a freshman take a picture of it mid-walk. It’s always a perfect picture no matter the weather which means only one thing: it’s secretly one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Although you get annoyed with all the “Old Main pics” now, you’re going to miss walking by this majestic building when you graduate, so take all the Snapchats and Instagram pictures your little heart desires.

The Willard Preacher

This is another SUPER annoying Penn State thing but everyone still (somehow) loves him. Over the past four years, you’ve heard him yell about things from girls getting called ‘hoes’ to boys only thinking with their penises, and you still don’t understand why people continue to stand out there and listen to him. No matter how many absurd and ludicrous things this man yells at us, you can’t help but laugh to yourself every time you walk by Willard. So take in all of his craziness and infamous red sweatshirt because he’ll always be a memory of yours when you think back at your time here.

The Creamery

Ah, here’s a cliche one: The Berkey Creamery! Penn State’s historic creamery (circa 1889) that makes their own ice cream. Ice cream that is too high in fat and calorie content to actually be sold anywhere else but The Creamery. Completely absurd but we still do it because WE ARE, PENN STATE. Seriously though, you may not have been here many times but we’ve all been at least once – most likely when you were a freshman and had to do all the “Penn State things”. Once we graduate, the only way we can get a Peachy Paterno is if we build our own cooler and get it shipped to wherever we may end up. Stop worrying about your diet, how far it is from your apartment or that you don’t go because “you never walk by it anymore” and visit The Creamery a few more times before you leave.

Accessible, late-night drunk food

Another really, really important thing. Ever visit a new place and decided to stay out until the bars close? Yeah me too, but good luck finding food that’s open after 2am. Some friends and I went to D.C. for New Year’s this year and stayed out pretty late. We all got home and really wanted some pizza. Simple, right? Wrong. We got home around 3am and not a damn place was open – so we settled for cold rice and cried ourselves to sleep. Be thankful for Gumby’s and Wings Over (even though they shortened their hours and ruined our lives) because finding late-night drunk food is actually hard in the real world.

Nearly getting hit by the Cata Bus at least twice a week

This isn’t a joke. In all four years that I have been here, I never fail to almost get hit by these monsters multiple times a week. Since we were freshmen, we were taught that the university would pay for your school if you got hit by the Cata Bus but that’s very false. So many times we’ve crossed the street thinking we have time before the bus passes only to think to yourself, ‘oh, this is it…this is how I die.’ It’s a crazy adrenaline rush that the Cata Bus drivers are very aware of and I swear they speed up when they see a student frantically walking in front of them. So continue to misjudge the time you have to cross the street and keep your life exciting – we’re gonna miss these stupid busses when we graduate.

Daylongs

Daylonging, day-drinking, daging. Whatever you call it (daylonging if you’re well-educated), this will be one of the most memorable thing about college. Never again will you have a Saturday to drink your face off, run around in a crazy outfit and act like a complete idiot. Come May 8th, we’re big kids — forcefully and brutally thrown into the real world. Our precious daylongs will come to a halt. I suggest we spend every sunny day and weekend drinking with friends because after this, your weekends will be spent catching up on sleep, or even worse, working.

Football games and tailgating

Here it is. The most important, prized thing about our beloved State. We won’t be setting our alarms at 6:45am this summer to make sure we get our season tickets. We won’t be buying our White Out shirts, or wearing crazy game-day attire. We have spent our Saturday’s in Beaver Stadium for the last time. Never again will we wake up at the crack of dawn to get to the tailgates by 8am for a noon game.

Blue & White Weekend is the last time we’ll be at the tailgate lots drinking and wandering around aimlessly as undergrads. On Saturday, April 16, 2016 you all better wake up earlier than you thought possible, shotgun endless beers and go into the game only to get your last football ticket and a farewell chicken basket. Maybe bring some tissues, too.

Having all your closest friends within a two mile radius

For the past four years, you’ve made friends with some of the most amazing people you’ll ever meet and you will stay close with them for life. And for four years, all of those wonderful people have been inside our little Penn State bubble, living no farther than two miles away and if you’re lucky, just right down the road from you. These people have impacted your life in so many ways and these are the last few weeks that you’ll probably all live in the same place.

Graduation means moving away from your best friends and roommates, maybe moving to a completely different state, and never being able to send them a text to go get food with you. Call up your old dorm friends from freshmen year, go on fun adventures and create more amazing memories with the people who mean the most to you. Spend the time we have left with them even if that means sitting in your living room watching re-runs of Sex and the City, because after graduation your best friends could be a plane ride away. Penn State has given us many amazing memories that we’ll hold on to for life. We’re ever true to you, dear old White and Blue and will forever be Nittany Lions.

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