College: We're told it will be the best four years of our lives. We wait for 18 years, through years of schooling and hard work, dreaming of this magical place—away from home, away from parents, away from rules. Senior year of high school, we go through the miserably stressful process of applying and making decisions. All of our hard work from high school is about to pay off! And college has to be better, right? For the most part, we pick our own classes, and take only ones that interest us. There is the freedom to join any group on campus, and to get involved in anything we want to.
I guarantee, however, that most of you have found college to be even more stress inducing than any part of life before this. The real world is suddenly thrown in your face. No parents and no rules very quickly becomes no Mommy and Daddy to fix my problems and no sense of guidance and structure. People expect a lot from you here, and you feel compelled to deliver.
But why? What has happened to the "best four years?"
This is not to say that college is unimportant. On the contrary, it is probably the most important thing any of us have done thus far in our lives. But the overwhelming responsibilities and efforts to be perfect in the eyes of our superiors are distracting from some of the most important parts of these crazy four years.
While being away from home and preparing for our futures is a good way to prepare for the real world, that is all it really is...preparation. A bunch of 18-22 year old kids are not quite yet ready for the real world, so don't push us to be. We are going to make stupid decisions, it is a part of growing up. We will learn from them, so don't put too much stock in that one missed deadline or too wild night you had when you should have been studying. I promise that one instance will not make or break the career that you haven't even started yet.
College is one of the last times that we will have the freedom to truly be ourselves. Professions will put restrictions on many parts of us; how we look, how we dress, what we say, what we do. Use this to your advantage while you can. Yes, we need to know how to act when we get big kid jobs out in the big kid world. But we are not there yet. We only have four years of this crucial time, this in-between-childhood-and-adulthood. Enjoy it. Balance work and play. Do your work, and do it well, but put down the books and have a little fun sometimes. Grow up from high school. Let go of little things, don't start fights. Don't waste your time on people that aren't worth it. However, don't grow up too quickly, and miss this vital chapter. Dye your hair blue, get that new piercing, wear that slightly too short dress or slightly too tall heels. Say what's on your mind, have discussions. Meet people, lose people, be reckless, take chances. These are the experiences that truly prepare us for the real world.
