Congratulations, you’ve survived the debauchery and mania that is Mardi Gras in New Orleans. By this time, the beads draped in your room serve only as a faint reminder of the carnival season.

Unfortunately, by the end of this week you’ve likely realized that Mardi Gras break has left you with no time to gracefully ease back into your studies. Most of us have already had projects and papers due this week. Sorry to break it to you – but classes end in less than seven weeks from today. So drink that caffeinated drink, catch up on that sleep and stay in on the weekends. Now is the time to evaluate your workload for the rest of the semester and hit the ground running with your professional development efforts.

“Dolce far niente” is reserved for the Italians, meanwhile we live in a country where the pleasure of doing nothing is looked down on. So get back on that workhorse and push your hardest to end this semester strong, because you really have to. You can do this, we are so close to the end.

Some of the seniors know that they have their work cut out for them. We want to remind you that every assignment missed and class skipped, only increase the chances that you may need to stay an extra semester. For seniors, it’s your last few months of college, the last few months before you have to give in and start feeling like an adult. The urge to go to the bar is powerful. We know you want to set aside your textbook and start a week-long affair with your Netflix queue. With the job market as it is, get ahead of the game and start applying for jobs and securing your references. This is not just

a word of warning to seniors; all students need to be paying attention to accumulated absences and tardies. We know that no one wants to be stuck in a class they’ve already taken.

Honestly, now is even late to be getting your self together. We think that the next step is to reach out to the Career Development Center and to add your recent projects to your resume. Find an internship, apply for jobs and set goals for yourself such as leasing a car or adopting a puppy. If you don’t aspire to go abroad this summer, you can set rewards for yourself that will help propel you towards a successful end of the semester.

We call for students to hit the books at the library, stay in for a few weekends and to attend Emerging Professional sessions with the Career Development Center. Get a step ahead and volunteer, take risks and have confidence in your potential – you are in college getting a degree so you must have done something right so far.

We have seven weeks until the end, and now would be the worst time to give up on this marathon we’ve been training for our whole lives. Most of us have dedicated our academic lives towards getting our degrees, so don’t slack off in these last two months – own it and prove to yourself and everyone you know, that it was worth it, and that you could do anything you put your mind to.

The editorial is the majority opinion of the editorial board.