For many, College is a wonderful experience. It is a time of self-growth and development, as students grow into the beginning stages of adulthood and start to face the challenges that will soon be brought upon them by reality. However, for many of us who have been brought up in the age of rapid pop culture and entertainment advancement, we may view our college years as something akin to more current forms of entertainment. We take all the challenges that we face within the classroom, the always changing social scenes that we may find ourselves in, and the pressures and anxieties that simply barge into our lives at the most inconvenient of times, and we relate them to something that helps us conquer all of these things and face them, but in a virtual format. We turn to these wonderful little virtual worlds, each with their own challenges to face, as either a coping tool or mechanism, or as a relation to what we all may be facing. Each year of college is different, with challenges directly relating to that year, as well as the obstacles that are faced by personal growth. However, each year can be personified by a different video game franchise, some more lighter and fun in their challenges, others dark and difficult, as life has a chance of becoming at times.

Let's begin:

Freshman Year: Pokémon

You've entered a fantastic new world, full of new colors and adventures. Your goal is to try to be the best student there ever was, and collect a variety of friends along the way. You'll have your fair share of challenges, but they're not real challenging, and you'll look back on this year as something fun and memorable, possibly one of your favorite years ever.

Sophomore Year: Kingdom Hearts

You know the basic complexities that college can throw at you, and you've started to realize that some of your "friends" from previous years may not have been the best for your future goals. The world is still colorful, and you still maintain a sense of almost Disney-esque wonder, but the challenges of the future are now very real. You've started to find the professors who will challenge you, making the courses seem like Boss Battles. Yet at the very end, it's still a wonderful adventure, and some of the "Bosses" may turn into future allies (except Sephiroth...NEVER trust Sephiroth).

Junior Year: The Elder Scrolls Series

For many, your junior year seems like your longest collegiate year. The tests seem harder, the stress becomes very real, and sometimes you feel like completely stopping right then and there, and the English professor you signed up for won't stop talking about Dragons (granted, you are having to read The Hobbit). Yet when you really look at it, it seems much more grand in scale than you originally thought. The adventures you have this year seem magnificent, and you can finally see that, after a bunch of things that some may view as meaningless collection assignments, you can start to see the end of the journey. Yes, there are challenges in front of you, and you may feel like you're having to save your own world by yourself a lot of the time, but you'll find that there are plenty of followers to help you carry your burdens, even if they might get snarky about it at times.

Senior Year: Five Night's At Freddy's

During your senior year, time seems to stand still. You search for the final necessities in order to graduate and get the almighty diploma, but you have to keep watching your back, less things like due dates and rogue assignments jump out and mess up your progress. You spend most of the year pressing buttons and quickly trying to finish assignments, if only to make it through your last weeks of classes and finals. Reality is slowly creeping up on you, and you feel it slowly crawling towards you. But still you keep working as best you can, just trying to make it to daylight and get that graduation in hand and escape. But don't forget, the true monsters don't jump out from around corners. They wait 6-8 months after graduation, then BAM...student loan payments begin.