College is the time to be on your own and away from your home life. We are told it is the time to branch out and make something of ourselves. It is where we find our passions, our lifelong friends, our interests, our dislikes, etc. It is where we share the best times and some of our worst times they say. Can these experiences and expectations of ourselves drive us crazy? Or overwhelm us to the point where we stress about who we want to become or should become?
Expectations. Do you ever stop yourself and wonder if you as a college student expect too much of yourself? That every day when you wake up and go to class, to the gym, out to lunch, hanging with friends, etc. that you can do better or be better? Do you ever find yourself comparing yourself to others in ways that make you feel less than what you are? How he got the great internship this summer and has a successful future ahead of him? How she has many friends and gets attention from all the cute boys when you go out with her? Or how they got an A on their politics test while you got a C?
Do we expect too much of ourselves? Or do we do this to strive to be the better athlete, the better student, the better singer, or the better person than who we think we are? College is the time for challenge, adventure, disappointment and memories. Is this the way it is supposed to be? Do we ever stop ourselves and say I am good enough and I am the best I can be and will be? Do we stop comparing ourselves to the person next to us ever?
The world is filled with unknown and the unknown is what drives us to be who we are. We may look at the world as one giant race, but do we stop and look at the journey and what we are trying to accomplish in the long run? There is no prize. There is no 1st place. Because she got the better internship I see where she is headed in her success, therefore I want to be successful and will strive for a better internship as well. He runs every day to decrease his mile time for track, therefore I am going to start running every day so I can decrease my mile time and become a better athlete. Do we stop comparing ourselves, look in the mirror, and say how can I do better to be a better me not a better he, she or they? Because you will never stop expecting things from yourself and you will never stop comparing yourself. But the question is will you ever satisfy yourself?
