I woke up this morning in a good mood. That wouldn’t normally be cause for comment, but I’ve had a somewhat stressful week. As a matter of fact, I’d say I am finishing the single most trying week of my entire college career. Papers, exams, group presentations, work; you name a pressing obligation, I’ve got it. I even have an individual presentation to give this morning, which I just realized I was supposed to e-mail my IAH instructor about a week ago. Oops.

That’s a thought I’ve had many times during the last few weeks. Oops, I drank too much at The Peanut Barrel and couldn’t get up for my Friday class. Oops, I started reading “Bridget Jones’s Diary” when I should have been doing research for my ethics paper. Perhaps the biggest oops of all: I somehow managed to go this entire week without making time to coherently learn how to design the Opinion Page, which I will be editing this summer.

But despite all the reasons I have to be tearing my hair out in frustration with my inability to focus on anything of importance in my last semester of college, I am at peace. It is, after all, a beautiful day, and this weekend promises to be even better. I am about to finish my undergraduate career at MSU and am preparing for my last summer in East Lansing. This, more than anything, is why I am in a good mood today. I smelled summer in the air when I left my house this morning (At five minutes after 10, for a 10:20 a.m. class across campus. Oops.) and it felt great.

Summer in East Lansing is a sublime experience in many ways. Although my west coast of Michigan-bred mind longs for a little lake-effect breeze when the barometric pressure rises to astronomical proportions mid-July, I enjoy the laid-back aspects of summer in the city. The line at Rick’s is nonexistent. Georgio’s has baked-potato pizza with no bacon every hour of the day, not just in the afternoon. And the aforementioned Peanut Barrel’s patio seating is always open for business. Can life get any better?

Actually, yes. The most wonderful thing about summer is all the time we (or at least I) have to do the things we can’t do when hassled with a full-time course load, a job that eats up more time than it’s worth and friends who demand you show your devotion by accompanying them to The Riv two or three nights a week.

I will be able to read the Harry Potter series several times through, in between finishing all the reading I didn’t do for my pre-law classes this year. I will be able to finish watching the American Film Institute’s 100 Greatest Movies without feeling guilty about cutting into my study time. I will even have time to eat and sleep; priorities previously relegated to a distant fourth and fifth behind work, school and celebrating my senior status.

Maybe I’ll do something worthwhile, like volunteer work. There’s no time like the summer for padding one’s résumé to the fullest extent. I may finally have time to complete my Study Abroad scrapbooks, one year after the fact. Perhaps I’ll organize some sort of reunion so our intrepid group of travelers can finally see each other’s pictures.

Another pressing goal is to catch an entire home series at Wrigley Field while I’m searching for apartments in the Windy City. My first-place Cubbies are finally making things nice for their loyal fans and I’m choosing to celebrate despite the fact that there’s still several months left in the season. My unbridled optimism leads to visions of a City of Big Shoulders-Series that would be infinitely more entertaining to watch than anything the Big Apple could put together.

Regardless of what I do or don’t accomplish, it’s already obvious summertime promises to encourage a considerably more healthy state of mind for me and mine. More importantly, I will have time to reflect on hokey things like the path I’ve taken so far in life and where I want to go with my trusty journalism degree. What mistakes have I made that I don’t wish to repeat anytime soon? Will I go to Europe for grad school or suck it up and apply to law school? Actually, I don’t really need to think about that one. London’s calling and I can’t say no.

Another sound I can’t ignore is that persistent voice in the back of my head reminding me of the exam, two papers and ethics presentation that all need to be done by Wednesday. If only the siren song of the bars wasn’t echoing just as insistently. I’m just gonna have to learn to use the selective hearing skills perfected by my favorite city editor.

Here’s hoping I manage to tune out the right words. After all, it’s only one more week. And if I don’t?

Oops. I’ll have done it again.

Maria Del Zoppo, State News co-copy chief, can be reached at delzoppo@msu.edu.