Hatchet File Photo
After celebrating your last night as a student, get nostalgic and stumble back to campus one last time. Find the hippo statue and hop on for a classic tipsy picture.
By Meredith Hessel
Four years seems like a long time when you’re packing the car heading to Thurston Hall, but now it seems like it was just yesterday when you were nervous to meet those freshman year roommates.
Get ready to feel nostalgic because whether or not it’s your last night in D.C., Saturday will be your last night as an undergraduate student at GW. Find what type of student you were when you arrived freshman year and live your last night like it’s the first with these checklists.
The rebel: If you arrived on campus with a wild agenda, check this list for one last blowout.
Forget your responsibilities and sail away on the happy hour boat cruise on the Potomac River. D.C. Cruises offers a happy hour boat ride at 6 p.m. for $21 with a student ID on Fridays and Saturdays. It’s your last chance to get that student discount, so don’t miss out on the outdoor decks and cash bar to start the evening.
Stop time and rewind. In general, time flies but it stops at Decades in Dupont Circle for Rewind Saturdays. Relive your glory days, and your parents’ glory days, drinking and dancing to music from the 1980s.
Finish off the evening stumbling back to campus one last time. Take a classic tipsy picture on the hippo but watch out for EMeRG, although at least this time you don’t have much to lose.
The Colonial: For the over-excited freshman who continued to raise high all four years, retrace your path at GW and check off these memorable moments.
Start your night off on the bumpy, 20-minute drive on the Vex and remember the stark divide between Vernies and Foggy Bottom dwellers freshman year. Take pictures on the fields and walk up behind the scoreboard for the best view of the sunset over the Mount Vernon campus.
On the return trip, jump off at the Red Cross stop, and sneak into the City View Room of the Elliott School of International Affairs. Take in the views from the balcony with a view of the Foggy Bottom campus on one side and the monuments in the night sky on the other.
Make sure you have walking shoes on, and head down to 23rd Street for your last taste of classic college drunk food. Pack up some mozzarella sticks and head down to the National Mall for one last night monument adventure. Slide down the rail at the Lincoln Memorial steps and take your last late-night photo – just don’t caption it #OnlyAtGW.
The Explorer: If you prided yourself on becoming a true D.C. native during your time at GW, then soak in the local charm on your last night as a student.
Grab a coffee and go for a morning stroll on Massachusetts Avenue, observing all of the embassies that are a unique part of living in the District. As you walk the neighborhood, recall casually bragging to friends and family back home about the gala events that freshmen drag out their old prom dresses and suits to attend.
There’s nothing more D.C. than running into a senator at dinner, so take a seat at Cafe Milano in Georgetown and you’ll likely be dining alongside some of the District’s most elite. The Obama family celebrated their daughter Malia’s high school graduation there in 2016 and The New York Times called it the place where the powerful gather to “hold court.”
End the night by grabbing a seat to the second-to-last performance of the Washington National Opera: Madame Butterfly at 7 p.m. at the Kennedy Center. Admiring the costumes and top-notch vocal performances during the tragedy about a naval officer who chooses to wed a young geisha will make you feel like a high-society D.C. native.