If you ask college students what college is like, you’ll likely receive a lot of different answers. But if you ask college students what college is SUPPOSED to be like, you’ll likely get one universal answer. Presumably, an answer about trying new things, dating around, drinking a lot, and most of all: having fun. This is the college experience. The coveted, much-talked-about, and much-sought-after college experience.
And with this legend of the perfect college experience, comes the pressure to meet it. It is assumed that with graduating comes an alcohol tolerance to last a lifetime, and possibly HPV. It’s the dream. But what about the college students who found the love of their life? Or the ones that don’t like to drink? Or the ones that catch feelings too quickly for casual sex to be actually casual?
As a college student, I feel as though sometimes I live in the shadow of the college experience I THINK I should be having. It has me always wondering, what if I’m wasting my time? What if I’m not living up to the idealized TV-movie I think my life should be? It sometimes leaves me feeling pressured to go to parties I don’t care about with people I barely know, all for the distant hope that somewhere along the line, I will be able to look back and brag about all those glossy little memories that survived the night.
However, I’m here to tell you the "college experience” is overrated and unattainable. Even people that have the true, “party ‘til you puke” lifestyle that you think you should be a part of, have to go to class on Monday the same as everyone else. The truth is there is no one way to exist or live life. The college experience is the idea of going out and trying new things and experiencing life. As if life ends after you graduate. There is plenty of time to be young and stupid and try new things. College is simply a stepping stone for all that’s to come.
Your college experience isn’t wasted because you fell in love or because you spent more time hanging out than you did hungover. Life is too fluid for you not to be, too. And everyone is different. The college experience sounds nice and all, but at the end of the day the college experience is really just how you personally experience college. It’s no perfect coming-of-age movie, and it’s no walk in the park either. But it’s an experience all your own and it’s an experience that helps define you. And we are not all defined by the same circumstances.
Don’t get me wrong, though. College is about trying new things. But it’s also about finding comfort in the old ones, too. It’s about forging friendships in the library at 11 p.m. It’s about networking and learning what you’re passionate about. It’s about planning for the future and falling in love with yourself. It’s about a thousand things and a million possibilities. So don’t let people put you or your experiences in a box. Do the things you like, and the happiness will follow, even if it doesn’t come in the form you expected.