To register for classes at Connecticut College, we have to meet with our adviser and discuss our ideas for what we want to take for the next semester. I meet with two advisers because I am a double major in American studies and English. This fall when I met with my advisers, Professor Catherine Stock for American Studies and Professor Michelle Neely for English, it started off as a regular meeting. We discussed what was going on in my life and academics during the past semester. We looked at my Degree Works page, the webpage that shows what requirements you have completed for your major and your graduation requirements. To see the page with almost all of my requirements completed was liberating. I had been taking classes in my majors of study pretty much exclusively since my sophomore year. During my first year, I took classes to discover what I was interested in and to complete my general education requirements. To see that I was done with my general education requirements and my American Studies major was a strange feeling. This thing that I had been working on for so long was finished. I did still have a few more requirements to fulfill for my English major but aside from that, I was free to take something else that interested me, a feeling that excited me.

As a senior, this is my last semester at Conn, and it might be my last chance to take a unique course. I did know that I had to take my senior seminar in English, which is a class focused on one or two particular authors that are in a professor’s area of interest and specialty. They change each semester depending on who is teaching. This semester the course is on Jane Austen, a subject I have been looking forward to exploring. I signed up immediately. Looking with my adviser at the other classes being offered, I saw several others in the English department that were interesting, but I was encouraged by friends to take something different as well. So, in the end, I decided to sign up for a food writing class, a religious studies class and another English class with my adviser. I wanted to start and end my English major with her.

On the day of registration, I woke up and went to the portal where you sign up for classes. As a senior, I got to choose my classes on the first day of registration so I was not very worried about getting into the classes I wanted. Thankfully, I was able to sign up for the three new classes and a feeling of being done washed over me. In my last semester of college, I was taking classes with three professors I have not had before and was able to sign up for classes that I thought would make my final semester unforgettable.