I think most college students can agree on one thing. We love college but we absolutely hate the actual school part, you know the reason why we are all here in the first place, to learn. College is the stressful environment that we all love to hate. I don’t think you can even call yourself a college student if you haven’t had those late night thoughts of dropping out or wishing you could drop off the face of the earth because anything is better than going to your 8 a.m. exam that you have studied for all night that you are sure to fail.

College is a unique environment that has just as many lessons outside the classroom as it does inside a classroom to learn. This fall I had an eye-opening revelation that completely changed my view on college. College always seemed so complicated and so stressful, but one day it hit me. This world we live in called “College”, it actually isn’t all that stressful after all.

It was an early fall evening at sunset, I was sitting upon a rooftop with a few of my fraternity brothers having a few beers sharing some laughs smoking some weed, just enjoying the night. We got in a conversation about graduation and entering senior year and how fast time flew by. As we continued on with the conversation I gazed out onto a beautiful fall sunset and in that moment, everything made sense all at once. There it was, right in front of me all these years and I never realized it till right that second. Life will never get any better than the life we live in college. As my legs dangled off the side of the roof, I declared to my friends “ Boys, it’s never going to get any better than this.”

I know, crazy right? Think about it for a moment. Think about the life you live on a college campus. When else will it be socially acceptable to have negative 8 dollars in your bank account. Being broke is like a badge of honor in college and no one judges you, however, they embrace you and will share in your sorrow that is poverty. Where else can you send out a group text asking for people to drink with you and 40 of your friends show up in 20 minutes?

These things are life experiences that shape who you will be moving forward in life. Someone once shared with me an amazing quote that went something along the lines of “ You can retake a class, but you can never relive a party.” On the surface that may sound like “let’s all not care about school and drink”. Well, I think it goes deeper than that. We are here, not only to learn, but for the experience. That experience is all about taking yourself out of what you're supposed to do, step out of your comfort zone, and live a little. Skip class to go with your friends on a crazy adventure. Leave night class early on Thursday to go drink. Ask the most beautiful girl down the hall from you to come to a party and at that party walk up to her and kiss her. Take chances, take advantage of the opportunities college presents you with. You can be anyone you want to in college, so find who you really are here because that is the secret to having an amazing college experience.

My college experience has had it’s up's and downs, it’s tears, heartbreaks, and turmoils. The one thing that has been consistent however through this experience is the fact that a weekend can really do a lot to forget about a hard week. Enjoy being broke! Move on from that girl that broke your heart that's sleeping with your friend now, guess what there is thousand more of them walking around your campus and in the fall a whole new batch is coming in. Life goes on, the sun will rise each day. Take what yesterday taught you and apply it to the present. Live, laugh, learn. It sounds cliche, but no three words apply more to college.