You spend four years of your life and hundreds of thousands of dollars on a college education. You take class after class and you write paper after paper, and when the best, most care-free four years of your life are all said and done, you are left with a million and one tiny memories that have truly shaped you. But the things and memories that you really take away from college aren't the lessons that you read in your Economics textbook or the lectures, that you nearly slept through, by your Engineering professor. The stuff that really shapes you, the stuff that you will look back at in five, 10, maybe 20 years from now, and proudly remember, will almost always have nothing to do with the hours you spent dedicated to studying for that college degree.

While I'm only a junior and while I (thankfully) have nearly two years left in college, I can already say, without a shadow of a doubt, that the moments that have impacted me most, thus far, have always had nothing to do with the courses I've taken or the professors I've had.

Here are some of the things that you will remember long after you (dreadfully) move on from the best four years of your life:

The friends that have been by your side through every up and down. You'll remember the friends that were there to clean up your mess of a mascara-stained face when you had your heart broken and you'll remember the friends that would do anything and everything in this world to be there for you, when you were happy or sad or when you needed help, but never wanted to ask for it. You'll remember the nights that you spent sitting around your house that you share with eight of your best friends in the world. You'll remember wine nights and drunken memories and the laughs (that probably gave you abs) that you only could have made with your hilarious, and slightly perverted, friends by your side. You'll remember the friends that held your hair back when you were way too drunk for your own good and you'll remember the same friends that brought you a bagel, bedside, the next morning, to nurse away your hangover. You'll remember your sorority sisters that made college feel less like a school and more like a home. And you'll remember every single person that made you feel like you wanted to be this age for the rest of your life.

The boy(s) that hurt you but made you realize SO much about yourself. You'll remember the guy who put you through hell, time and time again. You'll remember what it feels like to be completely crushed by bad news. You'll remember each and every night that you got next-to-no sleep because you were upset and thinking of him. But you'll also remember what it feels like to feel yourself free falling for the first time. You'll always remember that guy who hurt you like hell, but you'll also always remember every single detail of every amazing memory you've ever made together.

Being a real person for the first time. You'll always remember the first time you did your laundry (and accidentally bleached every pair of jean shorts you owned). You'll remember the days that you left your room a mess, your entire wardrobe in shambles on your dorm-room floor, because your mom wasn't there to remind you to clean up. You'll remember the newfound sense of freedom that college is, and how simultaneously liberating and scary that can be. This is, in most cases, the first time in your life that you are on your own. You are going to make mistakes and you are going to learn and grow as a result of this. And you will always remember this.

The randomness of college. You'll remember feeling invincible walking around campus with your friends by your side. You'll remember the four years of your life that made you feel infinite. You'll remember the overwhelming sense of school spirit that made you swell with pride, the school spirit that had you ranting to your home friends how "TCNJ was the best decision you could have ever made." You'll remember the random guys you made out with in frat-basements and you'll remember each and every moment that made you feel like you were truly living college. You'll remember the lessons you learned from your professors- not the lessons taught by your professors. You'll remember learning patience when your professor did not answer your emails in time. You'll remember learning to grow a thick skin when your Journalism professor ripped your final assignment to shreds, the one that you spent months working so hard on. You will always remember the randomness that is college, this crazy limbo of a four years.

All of the lessons that you learned about yourself. You're bad at studying and you have just about the world's worst attention span. You are amazing at giving advice, but you're terrible at taking other's. You love being involved but sometimes you overextend yourself. You get stressed out easily, but you work best under pressure. You will have learned so much about yourself by the time your college years come to a close. These lessons are absolutely invaluable, more so than any piece of paper professing that you've made it.

Your college years are the years that will make you, change you, and shape you. Yes, you are primarily at college, spending waaaay more money than you would ever like to admit, to earn a degree. And yes, you should do well in school and you should sometimes study. But, you must not ever forget that there is SO much more to college -- there is so much more to life -- than the lessons you are taught in a classroom. The lessons that you will remember when you are old and gray and wishing you could relive your glory days -- your college years -- are the lessons that you will learn from your friends, and your surroundings, and yourself. Use your college years to explore and to meet people and to grow as a person. You will never again have another time in your life like this. So savor each and every moment you have left. Make the most of college.