My whole life, I've never been impulsive. I've always thought about the consequences of my actions and how things will turn out for me in the future. I ALWAYS stayed in my comfort zone. I never thought that was a problem until I realized that I'm a college student. If I'm not impulsive now and make the most out of my everyday life, when will I ever have the chance again?
College is the time to explore everything and find yourself. In high school, I rarely ever stepped out of my comfort zone. I did what was expected of me: I was the captain of the volleyball team, I got good grades, and hung out with my small group of friends, but that's it. I didn't try any new clubs, I didn't try to make new friends, because I already had an extracurricular and I already had friends, so why would I? I was completely content with never trying anything else.
Recently, I felt myself falling into the same pattern in college and I had to snap myself out of it. I started to feel content and comfortable with my life just the way it was and didn't want to step back out of my comfort zone to explore new things. I was doing the bare minimum that was expected of me to go through college and make it into medical school. The same high school thoughts were getting to me again: If I'm already in a club, why join another? If I already have friends, why put myself out there and make more? But then I realized: Do I really want to glide through college, not making the most out of my life here?
Not everything is about preparing yourself for the future! After college is when you have a job, bills, and complete, utter responsibility. I'm really working on not just focusing on the future because I have my whole life to do that. For now, it's just not necessary. Yes, there are some things you have to do in order to have a successful future: you need decent grades and maybe at least one extracurricular. But don't do the bare minimum. Go out and make more friends because that's what college is all about. Meet as many people as you can and get as many life experiences as you can. Yes, you're already in a club, but why not join something that you've never done before and see if it's interesting? Why not join the culinary club just because you can?
When you're out in the real world with a real job, you may have a hard time finding the opportunities that college is literally handing you. So for now, go get involved with any club that seems remotely interesting, go dye your hair pink if you really want to, go try that new hip-hop class even though you have zero swag, go study abroad in Prague, or simply go talk to that person next to you in lecture even though you feel awkward. Why? Because you can. Because now is the time to do it. And if you don't, you may regret it.
