Here it is: My senior farewell.

It’s probably the shortest thing I’ve written since arriving at Saint Louis University, but it’s definitely the piece that I’ve dreaded the most.

I guess that is why I’ve been putting it off for weeks, knowing that it’s due. I e-mailed my editor a few days ago and asked for an extension, because I said that I had other projects that needed to get done first.

In reality, this was all I really needed to get done; I just couldn’t bring myself to do it.

It wasn’t because I’m lazy, even though I am. I think it was because this is just another sign; a sign that another chapter of my life is over.

It’s a sign that there are no more late nights at Humphrey’s, spring formals at Kirkwood Lodge or 2 a.m. cab rides across the river to the Casino Queen.

I now have to look those signs square in the face and join the real world.

When I started at the paper my freshman year, I never really realized that any of these signs were there. I watched the seniors go through the year, enjoy themselves, write their letters and then they were gone.

I didn’t understand the finality of it until I walked onto campus the next year and they weren’t there anymore. Some of them, I haven’t even seen since then.

I didn’t realize the emotions they must have had as they went through everything for the last time. Every time we would go to something together, I would just think about how much fun it was. When it was over, I would begin looking forward to it for the next year.

It was not until I joined SigEp that I really began to see the signs of everything ending.

In the fraternity, I made some of my closest friends, and each year I would watch a number of them leave. Every time it happened, I knew that it was getting closer to it being my turn.

As senior year began, I started to see the signs that all the seniors must have seen before me. Whenever we go to a party or an event now, someone always attached the phrase, “this is our last.” to whatever it may have been.

These were the signs I had been missing when I was with seniors in years past.

Now, instead of looking forward to next year’s event, I find myself wishing that the one I’m at will never end. I know that each and every thing that I do on campus, whether it’s a paper, a project, a party or even just a simple night out at the bars, it could be my last one. It’s all a sign of the end.

Rather than get upset and sad about it, I’ve made the effort to enjoy myself as much as possible every time that I realize another sign that my four years here are coming to a close.

I encourage you to do the same when the signs begin showing up in your life. If you do, I think you’ll find yourself with no regrets when you graduate.

I know I don’t have any.

Steve Root is a senior graduating from the John Cook School of Business. He is chief ads designer and games page editor of The University News.