Over the past three years, I’ve decided that my life has never experienced such a high rate of change as it has during my last three years at college. I started college at the young age of 17 unknowingly unprepared for the days ahead. Fast-forward two years and I am now a senior at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee with a semester and a half left of my college career.
In some ways, time has flown by. However, the changes that have taken place in my life during these years have faced me with the twists and turns of a lifetime.
Allow me to lay them all on the table.
I went from having no idea of what I wanted do with my life to choosing a degree in Journalism, Advertising and Media Studies. My love for writing took off, driving me to start my own blog. Three of my closest friends will be married by May. My parents became business owners. By the end of this year, I will have traveled through at least 12 states, gone to four new countries and stepped foot in three continents. I signed a lease on a house for the first time last May. I also purchased my very first car. And well, there does seem to be a guy in my life that I really, really like.
I thought I knew who I was in high school, I thought I was as adult as it gets; but sitting here today, I realize how much growing up I still have to do. That’s OK. I’ll join every other high school grad when I say there’s no need to rush things. True adulthood comes with a full-time job, insurance payments, higher taxes, a family to care for and the expectation to have an all-around greater knowledge of the world. Like most people, I want those things someday, but I refuse to rush things.
Maybe you’re sitting at home, scratching your head, thinking to yourself how little your life has changed since your glory days in high school. Honestly, I don’t believe it for a second. Look at your family. Look at your friends. Take note of every place you’ve traveled to, every new dream you’ve achieved. Realize the new blessings you’ve been given and the things that have been taken away from you. You can try and fight it, but there will always be a day when you look back and wish you had enjoyed a certain period of your life more than you did. For me, I think that will be college.
No, I’m not referring to the party-till-dawn college lifestyle. I’m talking about the live-with-three-other-crazy-roommates, put-off-assignments-till-the-last-possible-moment, make-poor-yet-delicious-late-night-pizza-choices kind of college lifestyle.
I love the person I’ve grown to be and honestly, I wouldn’t change a thing about my life today! Nevertheless, by the rate of change my life undergoes on a daily basis, I better enjoy it now because tomorrow everything could change. I urge you to do the same.
