If you are an academic geek like me, you’ve pursued various minors, options to your major, club officer positions and internships. The closer you get to graduation, the more appealing adding just one more certificate sounds.

One more semester, you tell yourself. It’s not really that much time compared to the probable span of my life. At what other time will I have the opportunity to learn so much?

And then it happens. Signs begin to appear to you, as the burning bush to Moses, urging you to get out of school and on with your life.

Recently, these signs have been manifesting themselves to me in ever more significant ways.

— In the supermarket, you run into an old professor who asks what you’re doing now that you’ve graduated.

— Freshmen ask what year you are, responding to your answer with, “Oh. Wow. Really?” Their parents respond with, “But you look so young!â€Â

— People start calling you “Grandma” or “Moses” because you’ve been around longer than any other student they know.

— You have worked out the shortest paths between each and every building on campus and can haul across campus from the Save Mart Center to the North Gym in ten minutes.

— Your younger sibling complains about having to attend college with his big sister.

— People refer to major campus events from your freshman year as they would to the Gettysburg Address. “Well, legend has it that back in 2003…”

— You bump into a former classmate in the hall. After a few minutes of chatting, he says he must be off to class. He laughs when you ask what class he’s taking, responding that he’s not taking the class – he’s teaching it.

Partly because of these signs, I have decided that this coming spring semester will be my last here at Fresno State.

I’m not too disappointed, however. For people like me, there’s always grad school.