College is a season. It is different for everyone. Some people go to college for three years, others six. No one's experience will mirror another's and that is part of the beauty of it. Like life, college is about your path and no one else's.
I think this first hit me the summer before my Freshman year. I waited literally last minute to officially decide my college. Yes, I am a planner but I also can be indecisive. Great combination at times, especially when there are deadlines involved.
I had two great schools. I ended up choosing the one closest to home. This decision was based mainly on my family. I needed to be close to them, we had experienced a lot with my dad having cancer and also financially I chose to stay in state.
Once I got to my school the plan I had imagined of four years, study, study and graduate pretty much went out the window my second semester when my dad was given months to live.
Life is different for everyone. So is college. Our plans might change but our paths are just that, they are OURS.
The first thing I learned in college, is FLEXIBILITY.
You have to learn to go with whatever you're thrown. You have to learn to deal with time management and know things won't go like they used to this is a new season.
Another is to not buy into everything you hear or read. The second lesson, STAY TRUE.
Stay true to who you are.
Stay true to what you believe.
First semester, I had an English professor who tried to change all his students. I was a target as a Christian. He tried every class time to try and stump the Christians or at least dishearten us to the "realities" of life.
He taught me, the fourth lesson, to STAND UP for what you believe. Be respectful. Take the grade you get but never bend for a grade.
The fifth lesson was also from my first semester, never let a grade define you. It can be a test or the grade on your transcript. Be at college to LEARN and not to get an A. Granted, I believed the lie of getting the perfect grade... that you are not doing a good job if you get a B. That somehow grades define. Clue: they only have the power you give them. If you study and actually learn, and not just for a grade... the grade will come. Bonus, you'll actually remember something to apply to life, too. Talk about a win, win.
College is more than the time spent.
The sixth lesson, time matters but your college years are more than a prison cell. It is about MAKING THE MOST of it. Life has ups and downs. What you do with them will define how you remember them. Are you making the most of your opportunities? Not just in the classroom or to prepare for a career but what about preparing for a LIFE.
College is more than a season of education. College is time for you to figure out how you want to live and to see how you actually live. College is more than grades. College is more than time spent till you get a real life job. College is four years of lessons, but hey isn't that life too? Lessons. What college lessons are you learning that haven't been kept to a test?
You can have the career and life you hope for but guess what... college won't push you there. You have to step out and see its more than an education but a determination. That's the seventh lesson.
