In two weeks, I will be moving back into Knoxville to prepare for my Junior year at the University of Tennessee. The fact that I’m about to be a junior in college and that I graduated from high school two years ago sounds surreal.
I remember the summer before freshman year, person after person would sit me down and tell me to cherish my years of college because they would be the best days of my life. And once I got to college, I remember new friend after new friend saying that they were going to live up every moment of college life because, once it was over, their lives were basically over.
That didn’t sit very well with me. Growing up, the idea of adulthood put a sour taste in my mouth. And after high school graduation, having people tell me that I only had four years of happiness left (unless I went to graduate school to postpone the inevitable adulthood) gave me anxiety. I didn’t want to grow up. I didn’t want to get a “Big Girl Job.”
Yet somewhere along the way, during my two years spent at the University of Tennessee, I met people who loved life after college. I met people who chose not to let the adventure end when they walked across the stage to accept their diploma. And the idea of growing up stopped seeming to be so scary.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t want my life to end when my college career ends. I don’t want to be unhappy after I leave my university. I want to enjoy everything life has to offer. I want to climb mountains, visit cities and countries, and eventually fall in love and build a family. To say that our four (or maybe five) years at a university are the best that life has to offer is an injustice to ourselves.
Whether we use our degree or not, we have earned the right to be happy after college. We have earned the right to pursue a life, and what we make of it, good or bad, is a product of our own choice.
So, choose happiness in college and choose happiness afterwards. It’s not wrong to say that our days spent as college students are some of the best, but don’t leave the best days there.
