I thought I would take this opportunity to pass down a few words of advice to my junior counterparts.

Last year, my friends and I congratulated ourselves on being masters of the universe after conquering that most-difficult-of-all years, junior year. I had made it through what was supposedly the most difficult philosophy class, my roommate survived public policy and business law. We were, of course, amazing students to have survived such classes and planned to enjoy the fruits of our labor when we stepped onto campus as the ever-powerful, ever-unproductive senior.

We signed up for the mandatory but lazy 12 credits, planning on spending most of our numerous hours of free time planning what outfits we would wear to Heartland and coming up with new MP3 play lists.

We came onto campus basking in the sunlight of senior year.

Then the great shadow of the comp eclipsed our sunlight and made us the slaves we are today.

Hours and hours of free time spent watching ESPN, blending daiquiris and dancing turned into hours and hours in the library. Did anyone else know that place actually existed?

The piles of beer cans and clothes that were smoky from the bar were replaced with piles of books on subjects as fascinating as "Sartre and his existentialist drama," "the army of India and the development of frontier warfare" and "male domination in the image of athletes." And that was just the beginning.

We thought we spent a lot of time in front of our computers before. But time in front of computers junior year generally involved chatting on IM, playing Snood, and checking email to see if that guy you met last night actually emailed like he said he would.

This year, when I'm looking at my computer screen, Microsoft Word proclaims that I am revising page 10 of 25 pages of single-spaced paragraphs regarding what should help me with the rest of my life.

But let's think about this. I am a theatre and philosophy major. I'm going to law school next year. As much as I want to spend hours and hours writing a paper on Sartre's "No Exit" (don't get me wrong, I really do like the play), I have trouble seeing how the comprehensive requirement is going to better prepare me for law school.

Want a better example? How about spending weeks of your life chronicling the war in India and Pakistan, comparing it to the war in the Middle East and discussing what relevant lessons were learned in the first war that could help the conflict in the Middle East. Then, after writing that 30-page paper, try taking a two-day test on every period in human history.

Welcome to senior year.

Welcome to the comp.

Welcome to hell.

• Words of advice