The Final Year Syndrome

I can't help but make my comments and observations about this. As we get to our final year in university, can't help but feel lots of things have changed and everything's moving so incredibly fast. Yes, I can even feel this even though I'm not exactly back in school yet and currently on IA, but it's all the vibes that my peers are echoing around me. Lemme list down some of the things which make up what I call the Final Year Syndrome...

Job application, finances, economy......
Main biggest worry. What are you going to do after this? After 4 yrs of uni and all the long years of education put together, this is it. Your very first official job to get started with. Maybe for some it will turn into a life-long thingy, for others a stepping board for things to come and for some, an opportunity that hopefully leads to an even bigger opportunity elsewhere. Whatever it is, you can't help but feel jittery over it. Cos the peer pressure's there when everyone's applying for a job. Writing cover letters and resume is a tiring thing, and maybe so when you realise and look back that maybe you haven't done enough than the other applicant beside you. Attending career talks have also been a tad bit stressful with all the hungry young talent abound. And it doesn't help that now banks are crashing, economy's screwed and looks like it's gonna be screwed even further next year and there's little job positions. Some people worry about not getting an ideal dream job, but the point is can we even get a job now with the substantially lesser amount of job placings?

Inter-personal relationships....your friends and those that matter around you....
I don't know if any of you realise this, but somehow with a weird sense of fate, everybody starts scrambling to try to know each other better during this final year. What I mean is moving beyond people of your clique. We all start off at yr 1, being blur and possibly shy and choosing the people whom we would stick around with, whether by choice or a strange random fate. After that, most are unwilling to move beyond that our cliques. However, as I like to put it, after yr 3 sem 1 came, we seemed to have known more people in the faculty. And as for your current friends, you would have probably known them a bit more deeper, especially with all the group work that has to be done. Come yr 3 sem 2 that's when things change even further with people taking different paths. Some go SEP, others go IA, some stick in school, and now fast forward to today when the paths meet again, things change cos certain bonds are strengthened, others are weakened or even broken and some new bonds even emerge amongst this. Not to say this is a bad thing, but it's so dynamic that life that unfolds could make for an interesting TV show.

But my point is....think back to the last years of your JC days, secondary school life (particularly sec. 2 and sec. 4) When things come to an end, you feel a strange sense to get to know people around you even better, even those whom you would usually never speak to in class or bothered to say hi. Strange twist of fate or just that nagging feeling that schooling life is going to end very soon? Depends on you....the individual....

Love-life?! (Not applicable for those already attached)
My next point is kinda odd, even I find it interesting to see this unfold. Not too sure whether this is happening to just chem eng or maybe to other disciplines. The point of it is people are hooking up or even trying to hook up and more often than not, it's the oddest combination and people that you could never imagine getting together get together or try to get together. A good way to put this would be love is blind or love works in the strangest way possible. A not too good way of saying it would be desparation.

Put it this way...how often would you get to know new people and widen your social circle once you step into working life? Not when your job is going to be an engineering one and sitting in a refinery or office all day. Even if having a job that requires you to be a social butterfly, just how much can you even accept making new friends or acquaintances? Cos most people that you will meet will most likely end up as acquaintances.

Ultimately it really depends on one's individual mindset. The points I have listed are very real challenges that most final year student has to tackle. And even more so because I have seen cases like these unfold within our little community in chem eng. If you look at the glass half-full, most likely you will brush aside some of the points I have made and decide that it's all in the positive manner to take on these challenges and weather through whatever that may come. If it's half-empty, you're gonna be constantly bugged down by that. I certainly don't want to end up this way. Schooling life may be ending, but with an end, there's always a beginning.....why can't people see another beginning? We all have to move on someday....

So......have you sufferred from the Final Year Syndrome yet?