During senior year of high school, one of my best friends mentioned something to me about spending a lot of our lives merely preparing to live the rest of it. That hit me like a ton of bricks. How true is that? We really do spend our youth preparing for adulthood.
In high school, you’re told what to do every day. It’s as if someone is writing your life story for you. Your parents encourage you to get straight A’s and your teachers constantly assign homework. Life becomes such a routine and you follow what everyone tells you to do. You go to high school simply because that’s what you’re told to do. Then senior year rolls around and suddenly you’re in charge of your life. Great, cue the anxiety. You’re expected to know what you want to do for the rest of your life, because after all you’ve spent high school – the peak of your youth – preparing for college.
College is the time in your life to go on wild adventures, make mistakes, and meet your best friends. Nowadays, college is measured in cups of coffee and all-nighters. College – the best years of your life – is just a preparation for the rest of your life. We’re so focused on our future that we forget to take a moment to focus on the present. Society tells us that by our 20s we should have a set goal, or else we’ll fall behind and be unsuccessful. Today, the fear of being a failure is a monster in the subconscious of nearly every student. This fear, however, is completely irrational. Just because you’re 20 (or 30, or even 40) and don’t have a plan doesn’t mean you are or will be unsuccessful. It’s OK to not spend these years constantly planning and worrying about the future. Instead, college should be a time where you feel comfortable and free to explore your options, and if you feel like you’re going absolutely nowhere in life, that’s OK too.
Trust, ambition, and the longing to explore is what’ll set you apart. Trust yourself and know that your life has a meaning, even if you’re not sure exactly what that is. Have the ambition to take the opportunities that present themselves. Lastly, never lose the longing to explore. Explore who you are, who you surround yourself with, and where you live. One day you’ll find your true calling and you’ll know the exact path to take. When that time comes, the excitement and determination will be so overwhelming it’ll no longer feel as though you’re merely preparing for the rest of your life. You’ll be so immersed in your life that you’ll truly experience what it feels like to be alive.
