It feels like just yesterday you were moving into your dorm room and getting ready for your first day of college. You remember everything from your first all-nighter, to learning how to make grilled cheese with a clothes iron. It didn’t take long for you to realize how harsh the real world actually is but that didn’t matter because you finally had the freedom you had been waiting 18 long years for.
In high school four years felt like an eternity. You were counting down the days until graduation from the first moment of freshman year, but college is different. In college graduation isn't something to look forward to because you know it only gets worse from there. Everyone tells you that this is the best time of your life and you just want to take it all in. But, before you know it your first finals week is here, next thing you know you’re a sophomore and all of a sudden a family member asks you when you’re graduating and you realize that you only have two years left.
It’s a bittersweet moment when you realize that you’re halfway done with college. In two short years you’ll be an actual adult with actual responsibilities. Long nights will turn into long days, Christmas will only mean one day off instead of an entire month and you can say adios to spring break. You may not miss the stress of finals week or learning how to basically cook everything with a microwave, but it is going to be hard to say goodbye to early morning Starbucks with your roommate or having almost all of your friends living within walking distance.
It’s okay to have a rough semester in college because you can just start over again in a couple of months with new classes and new people. Even if you have a really terrible teacher you only have to put up with them for three hours a week and it’s over before you know it. After graduation you’ll be stuck with the same group of people for the next 30 plus years. You don’t get a new group of coworkers every six months and if you happen to have a really awful boss you're kind of stuck with them, because that’s just how life works.
We always complain about how terrible college is but this is the only time in your life that you can really put yourself first. You don't have to worry about supporting a family or putting food on the table, because hey there's always Taco Bell. At the end of a rough week you can always go to the bar to hang out with friends and forget your responsibilities. In a couple of years you won't be able to do that anymore, well at least not as much.
The thought of life after graduation is scary. You’re not ready to say goodbye to college and everything that comes with it, and that’s okay because you still do have two years left. Even though the last two years seemed to fly by it’s not too late to slow down and enjoy every moment of the little time you have left.
