There is a reason your parents, teachers, and coaches all refer to college as “the glory days." Once you finally get to college, it starts to all make sense. College is awesome. It is, for most, the first time living on their own and making their own choices every day. Living on your own without the responsibilities that usually come with living on your own leaves room for a lot of shenanigans. Here are some things every college student has taken for granted:
1. Meal plans.
Whether you get your food on campus and pay with your student ID or eat almost every meal at your fraternity or sorority house, you are taken care of. Cooking a meal as a college student, other than pouring the milk in your cereal or microwaving some hot pockets, is rare. The thing you look forward to most when visiting home is some good home-cooked meals. Once you graduate, however, most people see cooking as a chore and would envy those who can just walk into the kitchen of their sorority house and eat to their heart's content without having to cook (or clean the dishes).
2. Looking like crap in public.
We all now when you graduate and get a serious job, you pretty much get in the habit of looking nice and presentable everyday. But in college, going to class in the clothes you slept in is actually socially acceptable. The difference between work attire and frat party attire is a bit of an adjustment for some graduates, but same idea, right?
3. Having free time.
If you’re doing college right, you have a killer schedule. No class before 11 a.m., no class on Fridays, no class past 3 p.m.; whatever your schedule looks like, you created it yourself and hopefully left yourself a ton of free time. For a college student, the nine to five grind only applies to tailgates and pool parties. That doesn’t mean college students don’t work hard, we all do, we just don’t like to work any harder than we have to. When else in your life have you had this much extra time to go to the gym, go tanning, and get your work done in one day?
4. Seeing your friends every day.
Many people create good relationships with their coworkers, while other people keep to themselves and have never met anyone outside the realm of their personal cubical. In college, there is always a friendly face in every class, no matter how big your school is. You don’t have to wait until the weekend to see them or have a good time, you all live together on one campus and can see each other as often as you want! You can barely walk anywhere on or around campus without seeing someone you know.
5. There's an excuse to celebrate anything and everything.
College sports are very competitive and spirited, which is one of the best aspects of attending a school that loves their sports teams. Most college students wouldn’t think of it as football season but rather as “tailgating season." If it's not sports we’re celebrating, there’s always a pool party or date dash around the corner. After college, there aren’t very many themed parties, and Halloween doesn’t last a whole week (I know, it's shocking). In college, any day of the week can be celebrated, so live it up while you can!
6. Taking interesting classes.
For your whole life you grow up wishing you actually cared about what you were learning about in school and patiently waited for the day you could actually choose what you studied. In the past, you were forced to take classes you struggled in, but in college, even if the class is challenging, chances are it is at least interesting and helps you decide what career path you might one day pursue. There are a lot of big decisions to make in college, but at the end of the day, it is okay if you don’t end up working in the field you majored in. Life throws you many curve balls, so use college to really explore all of your options. You’ll never know if you like something until you try it!
7. Meeting life long friends.
Many of us meet very close friends when we are in school. Some of our grandpas and grandmas met their best friends in the first grade, even! We all make friends in school, but the friends you make in college are people you may have never met before. They come from all across the globe and from different backgrounds, and your university is what brought you together. You form special bonds with your college friends that are unbreakable and have the potential to last a lifetime. Whether you met them in the dorms, at class, a club, or Greek life, they will always have a special place in your heart. People often move to new places after college to find work or to branch out and try something new. You are used to traveling to visit your college friends, and this doesn’t change after graduation. At the end of your college career, you will have friends all over the map to visit and network with. College is without a doubt the best time to make lasting and incredible friendships.
8. Being stupid.
It is safe to say that every college student has made his or her fair share of mistakes. That is not to say that we are all stupid all the time, but it does happen. It can be something very small like dyeing your whites a different color in the laundry, or something a tad bigger, like getting arrested on your spring break trip to Mexico. Whatever trouble you find yourself in during college, you can usually recover from it. College students know how to rally if anyone does, and therefore, when times get hard, they Bear Down and move on. All of the mistakes you make in college are mistakes you needed to make. College is a time for learning, and you’ll never learn if you don’t get out there and make a few mistakes along the way; it will make you a more responsible and resilient person in the future. There is also always someone there to help you if you’re struggling, after all, we’re all in this together.
The list goes on and on. College is your time to find yourself, grow, and even make a few mistakes along the way. It is where you will meet your second family and where you will always feel at home. You learn just as much outside as you do inside of the classroom and find some of your true passions. The person you are when you graduate high school and the person you have become by the time you graduate college are extremely different people, not because college changes you, but because you find yourself and figure out who you want to be in the future. So enjoy college while it lasts, they weren’t lying when they called it their “glory days."
