If there's one thing that I've learned from going away to college, it's that the best way to be comfortable is in sweatpants and largely with a lack of things to do. However, I've found that staying exactly like that for too long can be a very negative state to be in. The whole experience gets kind of overplayed and boring if you remain in the same routine every day. Plus, going against popular opinion, even sweatpants need to be washed eventually.

"You're asking a lot of me right now, bro."

As I've gone through college life thus far, I've noticed that when repeating the same routine, days kind of blend together and the 10 weeks that I have at Kalamazoo College every quarter feel like six. The way I see it, there is a problem in getting too comfortable with one specific spot in life. If I stop changing things and just stick with one plan, the limited time that I have left to revel in this college world that I'm building for myself will be lost in a blur of interactions I can't put a day to and notes that I really should be studying.

Biologically, our mind is built to notice differences in an environment and react to them. If your eyes are used to the space around you and, suddenly, something happens at the corner of your vision, they have a tendency to automatically check out what's going on. It's a similar situation with daily life. Breaking out of daily habits and changing a few things up causes your brain to pay attention to the world a bit more because it's making new connections, stimulated by different experiences. Your brain was getting comfortable with not having to change anything, so you made it get off the couch.

"And I just got Netflix."

The worst part about staying stagnant, though, is that growth begins to cease. Getting too comfortable in one spot reduces the likelihood of making a change because why would you? That spot probably feels like where you belong for now, even if it's a role that you hate playing. It's not that it's a nice spot, it's that it's your spot. Pushing yourself to move outside of it will change the way that you interact with the world and the world interacts with you, even if it's only by a bit.

Scary? Good. Being a little uncomfortable causes change and change causes progress by expanding your experiences. My counselor always tells me, "struggle is the necessary precursor to change." It changes things when you force yourself to be a bit uncomfortable and maybe a little bit vulnerable. Of course, it is a risk to not be sheltered by normalcy, but the day a person decides to stop taking risks is the day that they close the door to the best opportunities in life.

Except for pizza. Always answer the door for pizza.

Making yourself a little uncomfortable can be as easy as changing the style of clothes you wear every once and a while or as significant as getting a job/different job. Either way, it's change and it's making an effort to make your situation different.

Coming into my Sophomore year of college, I was comfortable with being what I like to call "the tragic character." By that, I mean the person who tries to give all they have to others, accept the hits from everyone else and never asks anyone for help or support. It was miserable because I accepted a role that I created for myself and felt as if I would always be stuck in a place where I wasn't going to be happy. After I realized this, I asked for help in getting to a better place by trying counseling. A few weeks after my first session, I started saying "screw it" and simply began pushing myself into new situations, doing the harder thing that would be good for me in the long run. As a result, I've been slowly pushing the "tragic character" side of me out of my story and making up a new role as I go.

The thing is, I'm still scared of pushing myself past the spot that I'm comfortable. Taking risks makes a person vulnerable and the winds of change can turn out to be a storm or sharknado, but storms can push you to new lands and even "Sharknado" got a few sequels that people went crazy for.

"On my way to waste your time...and you'll love it."

Still, the storm is worth weathering because I'm on a different island. I didn't stay stagnant, I didn't let anyone — even myself — keep me stuck in one spot. I found a new temporary home to change and grow. As people have shown throughout history, many of us have an urge for more — for advancement, for progress, for lavish rewards in some area of life. Of course, some goals are impossible, given a person's circumstances. But it's also possible to get better than where you are. It just requires a clean pair of sweatpants and some lack of comfort. If you're cool with that, get up and change.