“I’m in college”

It isn’t an excuse, you are attending college.

Where, for most students, you have the privilege of being on your own without the scrutiny of your parents and their worrisome hawk eyes. It’s not a free pass to do whatever the hell you feel like without repercussions. I know everyone, who’s time at a university is over with, urges current students (you) to live it up and be as careless as can possibly be within the realm of safety, but I wish they would further justify what they’re prodding. I often find myself in a situation where adults, who have long graduated, put a hand on my shoulder look me dead in the eyes and say “don’t take college for granted, indulge in every moment.” This is something I sometimes need to remind myself of. I do have a lot of freedom now compared to when I'll have a 9 to 5 job and bills to pay; I’m going to have to pass on heading to Chimy’s at noon on a Tuesday so I might as well enjoy it while I can. That isn’t to be misinterpreted as: I will miss all my classes, finally pull myself together around noon, go to Chimy’s, get drunk before 4 p.m. and spend the last $30 in my bank account that's supposed to last until next Thursday on margs and nachos –– to which on Wednesday morning I’ll have myself a laugh and just tell my mom “I’m in college” when I ask for more money. “I’m in college” is not to be screamed as if 'so what' to your common sense when you head for a beer bong for the fourth time in a night when you can barely handle two. After giving your affection for weeks, you shouldn’t give the guy or girl a vague “I’m in college” for an explanation as to why you don’t want to commit. When you visit home over the break and your parents ask where you’re going –– because lets face it they don’t realize while you’re at school you’re out doing only God and Snapchat know what and that these four years accompany at all hours of the day –– you roll your eyes and act as if you didn’t hear them because “I’m in college” and you stopped answering those questions when they dropped you off at your dorm.

The fact that you’re in college, that you made it this far, obviously took some sort of discipline so bare with me on my tangent here when I advise you not to throw that all out the window. School is overwhelming, which is something I know better than others as I’m taking Chemistry for the second time and still as clueless as I was my first day of freshman year. The need for a release is intoxicating (literally) so the reality that my peers seek that refuge in the recreational use of marijuana and alcohol is understandable to a degree. Sorry parents, but it’s true. Let’s stop pretending you’re so naïve. What isn’t apprehending is this idea that college students' current actions are so easily dismissed because this is our time of “exploration and self-rule” if you will govern it that. That literally nothing will be used against us as long as we proclaim the reason for acting so foolish; is that we’re in college. I beg of you scholars to take a deeper reflection in the choices you make now that you’re doing it on account of the four years and company among you.