Growing up, I was always told that college is going to be some of the best years of my life. People say that you find yourself grow more than any other time, meet the best friends you will ever have and truly discover what your calling is. Now I am not saying that this is not the case. I have grown so much into the person I am because of my college career. I am trying to constantly find myself a little more each day. I have met some people who I am confident will always be some of my best friends for life. I think I know what I am meant to do. While my time in college has been an integral part in making me what I am, I do not think for a second that this is the best period of my life.

Like I said, my time in college has been great, but it is not all fun and games. I have nights where I am straight miserable. As I am sure you know from some of my other posts, I am studying Mechanical Engineering. I can say that preparing for these classes is one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. I get up early, work for multiple hours a day on some pretty difficult stuff, then I come home late and go to bed. Wash, rinse, repeat. While some people may have the college life seen in movies, this is not the case for me. I just know that there is better just a little later on in life.

College is a weird time. I said that I am finding me every day, but somedays I am more difficult to find than others. In a time where we are all transitioning from being teenagers to adults, things get hard. We have to decide what is important, not only to us, but for us, and work to make those things a priority. Everything else has to take a back seat. I promise that if you do the same, you will not regret it.

College is a period where you can forget all about where you came from. I have been fortunate to have people in my life that kept me on the right road. I am not just speaking about religion, but my morals and my way of life. Many people that I grew up with were not so lucky. It is easy to give into the temptations of college; to do what everyone else is doing. We can quickly find ourselves in a place that we don’t even remember who we are. This can put us in a place we never meant to get to. Just know you don’t have to stay there if you are in that place.

I want my best years to be ones where I am in my “dream” life, not the 4 or 5…ish years that I am constantly in a struggle. College is the time that we can find ourselves, but we can also lose ourselves if we aren’t careful. Don’t get me wrong, I definitely feel that we need some bad times to truly appreciate the good ones, but don’t count the “okay” times as the best. College is just a short time in the grand scheme of our lives. Keep looking ahead, and don’t accept anything until you truly have the best.

C.Long