College is a wonderful place full of intriguing professors, exciting new friends and lit parties on the weekends. Asher Roth was right, you can buy pizza a dollar a slice (at 7 Eleven) or just buy an entire large for five dollars. There's free food at events, free tshirts, prize giveaways, and the chance to be on the front page of the university newspaper. There's Greek Life, athletics, clubs for literally everything and you can feed the squirrels or at least attempt to. I forgot to mention that at college there is a free students activity center and gym that you can utilize and free group fitness classes you can participate in. College sounds like the time of your life, but for me and for many other students college is a marathon and the closer I get to the finish line the more I start to slow down.
College is not the time of my life. Don't get me wrong, I am happy and grateful to be attending a university and to be getting an education. I am just tired of everyone believing that college kids only party and socialize and spend money and sleep. College kids also have to work hard to maintain scholarships, that means putting in the work to keep high grades. College kids have to make sure they stand out from the crowd, this means participating in clubs and volunteering for several events to support and inform others on certain philanthropies. College kids have to be standouts to get into certain fields of study. I have a friend going into physical therapy and the school only accepts 20 students each semester. If it isn't hard enough choosing a major imagine how terrible it would be if you couldn't even get into the program for it.
College is not the time of my life but I am well on my way there. The time of my life will be when I have earned my degree, when I walk across that stage and smile with my diploma. The time of my life will be when I score my dream job and when I can finally tell myself that all my hard work and time committed to tasks that I considered not fun, has paid off. The time of my life will be when I no longer have the burden of college loan debt weighing on my shoulders. Someday it will be the time of my life. But for now, I will be eating an entire pint of Ben&Jerry's dreaming about the future, relaxing until my next 75 minute lecture hall.
