Being an old soul does not mean you look old or act old, waving your cane around at all of the young people doing things you don’t like. Being an old soul means you think differently. It means you view the world differently. Being an old soul in a college student’s body means you approach life differently. While being an old soul has taught me so much and I wouldn’t trade it for the world, it also brings along some struggles in day-to-day life. Are you an old soul? Then you’ll most definitely relate to these struggles.

1. We don’t need to stay up at all hours of the night.

College is a time for experiencing new things, and a lot of these experiences come with staying up at all hours of the night. For the old soul, however, staying up past our “bedtime” is not something we enjoy -- something most people don’t quite understand.

2. Reading for us is fun.

You heard me. We old souls enjoy reading. When we find a book we enjoy, we could read it for hours on end.

3. We like to wake up early and get a start on our day.

Going along with number one, old souls enjoy waking up early. I’m not talking 3 or 4 a.m., but I am talking 6 or 7 a.m. Starting the day early allows us to get our day going and not have to stay up extremely late. We are definitely not night owls but, rather, early birds.

4. We are fine being alone.

We are completely fine spending time by ourselves. As old souls, we are extremely independent and don’t need to rely on others to be around. We will do what we want whether friends are around or not. We still have friends and love doing stuff with them, but being alone is just as fun to us as hanging out with friends.

5. We really don't like change.

As old souls, we are pretty set in our ways, so when change comes our way, it is not something we like or even accept easily. It takes more than you can imagine to accept change, even if it is exciting change.

6. We strive for perfection. And we take the time to get it.

Old souls have a different mentality on perfection. We want it. We love it. We strive for it. This is not just your OCD perfectionist mentality. Old souls can let things be imperfect, but if there is something we want to be perfect, we will put whatever time we need to in order to achieve perfection.

7. We care a lot. Sometimes too much.

Old souls have the grandma mentality. We want to spoil the people we love, and we care about these people so much. No matter what, we strive to help anyone and care for whoever is around.

8. Spending time with people our age isn’t always what we want.

Old souls are often misunderstood by their peers. When faced with the decision of spending time with our peers or spending time with people older than us, we are perfectly content spending it with either, but a lot of times we will choose spending times with people who are older than us. It’s nothing against our peers; we just enjoy spending time with those that are most similar to us.

9. We don’t need to party.

One of the hardest things to deal with in college is the fact that we don’t have the constant need to party. We enjoy some parties, but when it comes down to going out every night, well, we just don’t really enjoy that. We are perfectly content with a Friday night in, watching Netflix.

10. At the end of the day, we love being old souls.

Some people may not understand us or agree with our old soul-ness, but at the end of the day, we love it. Being an old soul gives us a different outlook on life. We are completely OK with our lifestyle and we actually love it.