When you enroll in college, you never mentally prepare to fall behind. Your advisor is supposed to hold your hand while you obediently select each class that you're told to take in order to complete the qualifications for your degree. Year after year, you trust and believe that your diploma is only so far away.
Until you find yourself working over forty hours a week, juggling a 19 credit hour class load, and just so happen to have found the man you're going to spend the rest of your life with. These things combined tend to blur the happy picture in your mind of what college should be.
I spent a lot of time blaming different circumstances for my inability to keep up with homework and my general lack of ambition to succeed. It's a lot easier to convince yourself that the universe is out to get you than it is to admit that you messed up. Big time. It's taken a while to get to this point, but I'm finally ready: I messed up. I let myself get overwhelmed and I tanked half of my sophomore year of college. But it's OK.
To all of you that are current or upcoming fifth-year seniors, you are not a failure. You may feel defeated and miserable and worthless, but I need you to know that you're not alone. When you're putting in your textbook rental order while your friends are starting their full-time jobs, take a deep breath and forgive yourself. Self-punishment is the most damaging to your physical and mental health. You're only hurting yourself by remaining in the hole of guilt you've dug yourself. You've gotten this far, my friend; don't get so discouraged that you fall back into the same lack of ambition. Summer is almost over and it's about that time to gear up for your last or second-to-last semester of school.
I will be starting my ninth and final semester this fall with a greater determination than ever before. I was lucky enough to have gotten the opportunity to walk in the graduation ceremony with the class of 2016 last spring. If nothing else, that is motivation enough to finish what I started. I am still with the graduating class of 2016. And so are you. They didn't leave you behind, you just stumbled and need to catch back up. According to the New York Times, "At most public universities, only 19 percent of full-time students earn a bachelor’s degree in four years." You are not alone.
The journey through life is filled with bumps and roadblocks along the way. Some are just the standard difficulties of living and some we place there ourselves. Our mistakes do not define who we are, but rather, it's how we fix them.The people we are after we emerge from the rubble should be how the world perceives us. You are strong, dedicated, and determined to make up for lost time. I know you are.
We are fifth-year college seniors, my dear reader. And that's perfectly okay. Chin up and remember why you're still trying.
