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All freshmen make regrettable sexual errors. At a rate far higher than their upperclassmen counterparts, freshmen have sex in East Campus common rooms, wake up too many mornings in section and bribe their RAs with sexual favors. Then, with the same suddenness and severity as the transition between Aristocrat shots number three and four, things change. Although maturity and age don’t always provide immunity from poor decision-making, our sex lives evolve dramatically from freshman to sophomore year, frequently resulting in an epidemic of commitment.

I only became aware of this impending trend after spending my post-freshman-year summer in a foreign (well, Canadian) city, entertaining new older and wiser friends with tales of my freshman-year promiscuity. One evening, my friend Shawn reacted to one of my stories in a tone that was simultaneously bemused and serious, “You know you won’t be able to continue with this stuff, right?” In response to my perplexed glance, he elaborated: “You’re going into your sophomore year. The BOYFRIEND year. If you don’t settle down, it looks kind of pathetic.”

I shrugged off his comments, but they stuck. He was right. Sophomore year was the Age of the Relationship, and those who hadn’t retained their high school partners or freshman dorm marriages quickly descended into coupledom. From a logical standpoint, no one can deny that you get laid more often attached than single. Plus, sex no longer has to be a special late-night weekend treat, enjoyed as the dessert to a polished-off box of cheesy bread. Instead, it’s scheduled in during study breaks and coupled with mid-afternoon naps. Ten points to relationships!

But now it’s senior year. Awkwardly serious questions begin to dominate these more casual benefits. For many, the question comes down to two polarized paths that separate a life with weddings and shared bank accounts from nothing at all. And if nothing, what’s next? For seniors in the post-boyfriend world, is it possible to reclaim the glory of one’s early exploits? If you spent most or all of your college life in a relationship, what do you do with your eleventh hour of singledom?

According to my friends, sometimes the second time around can be better than the first. Benefit number one of senior sex to freshmen sex? Off-campus apartments with private bedrooms. One newly single senior used the advantages of four walls and a locked door to avoid sleeping alone from Durham arrival to FDOC. This is definitely not your freshman-year orientation week. Another senior advantage? Booty call mastery and a habit of demanding sex from significant others without a hint of subtlety. This talent has its drawbacks when the second love interest you texted unwittingly hitches a ride to your West Village apartment from the man you tried to lure in first, but it still beats the awkwardness of dormcest.

In the light of a new year with no rules, is it possible that everyone has just regressed back to the clueless hormone-directed freshmen year? Or is the post-boyfriend world a new chapter in the collegiate experience, both liberated and dependent on previous eras of commitment? If freshmen regret their decisions, maybe upperclassmen learn to relish them.

For those of you who were wondering, I’m still committed. Dream on.

Brooke Hartley is a Trinity senior. Her column runs every other week.