The first week of my junior year of college flung me head first into a quarter life crisis. On the first day of school this year, I felt tears well in my eyes as I realized that I'm halfway through undergrad. What a shocking and scary revelation that was. Yikes.
Yes, being an upperclassman has its perks...like not having to go to awkward social events because you already belong to a friend group, walking into a room on the first day of class and not being afraid you're in the wrong place, and knowing exactly where to sit when you go eat lunch.
Then you realize that the perfect life you spent building the last two years is going to disappear in two more; and then you'll be kicked out of your comfort zone and into the real word before you can even say "student loans."
Thinking about this makes me want to curl up in my tiny dorm bed, turn on sad music, and cry myself to sleep for the rest of my life. Yes, I'll just stay in college forever, thanks.
It's not that I'm not excited for what the future holds. I mean, I came to college to get a degree that will allow me to do what I love for the rest of my life. But, I just love college. I finally know why my dad always told me that he would go back to college in an instant, if he had the chance.
This is where I finally learned to be independent (mostly), where I met some of the most important people in my life, and where I started to learn who I actually am. This is home.
Like I said, I'm a junior. Not a senior, not a super senior...so I still have at least another two years here. The only thing I can do is make it last. Make it so when graduation finally arrives, I'll feel as though it's time to move on, and make some new memories somewhere else.
How will I do that? I don't freaking know. I plan on many long Friday nights with my best friends, thousands of sorority photos with my sisters, actually learning something in my classes, and being kinder than necessary. The rest will fall into place.
My friend recently had a health scare, and it scared me too. While I believe that I do a pretty decent job of letting my friends know that I love them, it's never enough. Tell those people how important they are every chance you get. Yes, I know you've heard that a million times, but I wish you would love your friends every day as hard as you would on the day that you think you might lose them.
Keep that in mind as you try to put as much life into your college days as you can. I know I will.