Here we are, four months in with only a couple more weeks to go. We’ve survived our first exam, the first night out, the first all-nighter in the library, the first adult decision and the first few weeks living with roommates – only to name a couple of the milestones we’ve encountered over this last semester.
It feels like just yesterday we were unpacking our things and moving into the dorms, so excited but also terrified of what the future holds, the latter we would never admit however. Today we feel like pros. We’ve been here long enough to have gotten a handle on how this whole college thing works. At least that’s what we tell ourselves.
You see, one of the biggest surprises entering this chapter in my life was not all the things that happened, but, in fact, the things I expected to happen but didn’t.
Everyone tells you college is the best four years of your life. While this is true, everyone fails to mention that they are also the most trying, difficult and draining four years as well. From the outside looking in, college student’s lives appear to be filled with days full of freedom and friends and nights full of parties and fun; but, ask any college student and they will tell you that this is anything but reality.
The truth is that most college students are broke, stressed, tired and unsure of the future. Between fun nights out and movie dates in with new friends, we are locked away in the library studying for a major we aren’t completely sold on yet, working seven hour shifts so we can pay off the parking tickets that just seem to keep adding up, and sleeping any chance we can get.
Don’t get me wrong, college is great. It really is. I wouldn’t go back to high school if someone paid me to. But, that’s not to say it’s been a smooth, easy ride either.
For so long I felt as though I was the only person feeling this way, as if college wasn’t going how everyone told me it would, until I began to talk about it with people around me. I’ve found that most college students agree with me. College, while great, is not easy and it certainly isn’t what they thought it was going to be as well. But, one of the beautiful things about this time in our lives is that you have the capability to change your perspective and turn the situation around, you just first have to choose to want to.
If these last four months have taught me anything it’s been this: it’s okay to not know what’s coming and it’s okay to go a different way than the way you originally anticipated to go.
You take things day by day, and day by day you figure out college – and yourself – a little more. Oh, and one of the best things about college? The amazing people you meet who go through this crazy journey alongside you.
College is hard. But the people it brings to you and the lessons it teaches you are worth every study hour and every sleepless night.
