Life, in hindsight, is a series of do-overs. No matter how many times people try to tell us everything’s permanent, in reality, they are the farthest thing from it. Before college began we all sat there, mesmerized by the thought of up and leaving the small suburban town, limited with opportunities, and essentially getting the chance to finally be who we want to be.
In a world full of critics, getting a chance to start over, where no one knows your past, is a crucial part of growing up. But what may surprise you is that all this time, we are opposite of the image we have created in our minds. Up until this point we lived in a town or a city where we tried to conform to the norms of our peers. The idea of trying to fit in polluted our minds and fabricated a tunnel vision, preventing us from blossoming into the individuals that are hidden inside of us. From that spiralled us into where we are today, insanely confused.
The first time you stepped on campus, it felt like a different universe. Everyone was so welcoming and avoided judgment. It took me by surprise, I thought it was just a way to get us freshman to become comfortable with each other. But it wasn’t. For once in our lives, nobody cares. Not in a bad way. But in a way that provides us with a sense of independence.
Once we were handed this independence, I know what you were all thinking, what am I gonna do with it? For the first time in our lives, we get to do what we want. And for the longest time we just did what everyone else wanted, and never got the opportunity to think for ourselves.
This is when we realized that, we never actually knew what we wanted to do or what kind of person we wanted to become. We were so blinded by the idea of fitting in that we completely disregarded the one person that mattered, ourselves. But now is the time to finally figure it out. We will meet people who mirror our likes, dislikes, and everything in between. We will meet people who bring out a side of us that we never even knew we had.
The people we were four months ago are long gone. It's time to start fresh. That may be intimidating to some, but it will lead you in the right direction.
Not knowing what to do doesn’t mean you never will. This puzzlement means we are finally becoming adults. We don’t need the approval of others. Now is the time to take this gift of independence, and run with it for as far as we can go. Now’s the time to finally figure it all out.
