Maybe you were ineligible due to an injury and you're staying to play an extra year of the sport you love. It could be that you changed your major more times than you've done your own laundry. The parties got to be too much, the classes were too hard, you transferred in, or maybe, like myself, you picked up a minor during the fall of your senior year. Whatever the case may be, you're heading into the seemingly more common, 5th year of college.
I'm not sure how others felt about this but, at first I was ashamed and felt as though I had failed. I stood in the same pictures as my friends, though not in the same blue gown. I went to the parties and listened to the drunken goodbyes and "one last time" stories that I could not relate to. I dread the unavoidable "Oh my gosh, are you visiting this weekend" question that I will undoubtedly and shamefully answer "I still finishing my undergrad." I listen as my friends go on about how lucky I am to not have to join the adult world just yet as I watch them all begin their careers.
Maybe I'm just the Debbie downer of the group. I'm sure there are some who cannot wait for, yet, another year of Marty's, Greek Week, pictures with the panther, 2 a.m.Chubby calls and Trivia Tuesday. Though these are all fun things, my old lady ways, 9 p.m. bedtime, and love for Netflix has taken over as it has for most of my 2016 college graduates.
It wasn't until after I came across a quote that I began to realize I was looking at the extra year of undergrad in the worst light possible.
"You need to ignore what everyone else is doing and achieving. -- Your life is about breaking your own limits and outgrowing yourself to live your best life. You are not in competition with anyone else; plan to outdo your past, not other people."
After reading this quote I thought maybe, just maybe, I was thinking about this entire 5th year in the wrong way. Life isn't a race. There is no right or wrong age for people to go to school, graduate, fall in love, get married, or even find their dream job. I know 40 year old's who are going back to school and people who are over 50 who are just now finding the love of their life. Age does not define which checkpoints in life you should be coming up to, it's only a limit if you make it one yourself. I know now that this extra year is only preparing me to be extra qualified for the change I'd like to make in the world. I hope that a fellow 5th year is able to read this article and find the extra year to be a step towards success instead of a failure, as I did. Time has a funny way of working itself out. I trust that my extra time will be spent doing just that while I proudly fill my undergrad with extra memories, new friendships, success and of course many more Tuesday's spent at trivia with tacos.
