With graduation rapidly approaching, departing seniors across campus and around Isla Vista are lamenting all the things they will lose come June. Thousands of fourth, fifth and even sixth and seventh-years spend hours compiling lists of the many items they will miss about this beautiful campus and college life in general, but, seriously, not everything about college, even college here, is worth missing.

Don’t get me wrong. As a graduating senior, and one that has only spent two years at this campus, I know how many wonderful friends and amenities I’m going to be leaving – and let’s not forget for a moment the unparalleled location. Still, call me cynical, pessimistic or, as I prefer, simply realistic, there are certain things I just don’t regret parting from.

For instance, I will not miss men in pink tutus humping my leg and strangling me with the scarf I had refused to let them steal or having my hat thrown in a puddle of stale beer and puke – and that was just the first 10 minutes of that party.

I’m also more than happy to leave behind this neighborhood’s abnormally large rodent population that I see wandering around as I make my way home from the Nexus office in the wee hours of the morning. These skunks and raccoons are not only large in number, but freakish in size.

How about roommates? I love my roommate. I don’t think I could find a better person to share a room with anywhere, but I must admit that there is nothing like having my own space, my queen-sized bed and my own bathroom.

Then there is always the issue of neighbors. This year I had the pleasure of living upstairs from a group of second-year guys. They would go to bed at 4 a.m., get up at 7 a.m. and blast their rather eclectic music collection whenever they were awake. More than one of the members of our prized empty liquor bottle collection has been sacrificed to the vibration.

Nearly everyone with a car can also agree with me when I say that nothing will make me happier than to park my car right in front of my own house when I leave I.V. No driving around for 45 minutes. No “half spaces” that cause me to lecture empty vehicles on how to parallel park properly. No nine-block walks with an armful of groceries. Just parking spaces as far as the eye can see.

At 21, I cannot wait to return to a place where liquor stores and local bars close at 2 a.m., not midnight. I don’t think I need to say more.

And who can forget the little things in life? Washing machines in the same building that don’t ruin your clothes, dishwashers and garbage disposals that actually work. These are simple things that, since college, I have realized are vital to my life.

While some may not understand, I am, maybe sadly, excited to go somewhere that is home to my favorite restaurant and retail chains. Kmart just isn’t enough. Freebirds doesn’t always cut it. Target, Del Taco, Best Buy, Olive Garden: we will be together again soon.

Of course, I can’t forget the most important and obvious burden of college life, classes. No one enjoys going to classes. Even fewer people enjoy the work that goes along with classes: the reading, the papers and the horrendous group projects. In that vein, I would like to take the opportunity to announce my schoolbook burning celebration to be held at 2 a.m. the Saturday morning after finals. Forget couches. Burning the literature anthology or the American history text that has been the bane of your existence for the past 10 weeks will be truly therapeutic.

Honestly, however, I’m sure that after a week I will long for the beach. In a few months I know nothing will satisfy my nacho craving but a Styrofoam container stuffed to the brim with my own unique combination of Freebirds’ toppings. And, within an hour, I will miss the people with whom I’ve lived, studied and worked. But those thoughts won’t get me through the next few weeks. The others will.

Former Daily Nexus Copy Editor Tiffany Peal will not miss the late-night production shifts at a certain college newspaper, but she will miss the quirks of a rather charming opinion editor.