Congratulations, you’ve almost made it! Just think: in one more year, you’ll move back in with your parents and be forced to sit through an odd limbo of unemployment. I think that all of my fellow college seniors out there deserve a pat on the back for making it this far. College is tough, but from what it sounds like, the “real world” is even tougher. What even is the “real world,” anyway? Isn’t college real enough?

I’d say that every student assumes a different level of responsibility, and after four years, one’s maturity determines how brutally the “real world” decides to treat them. Maybe you spent four years improving your alcohol tolerance, or maybe you spent that time locked away in your room with your face glued to your textbooks. Some do both; and yes, I’ve seen it. It’s very impressive. Unfortunately, however, 99.99% of us are not perfect, and we screw up. We make bad decisions, but we learn from our mistakes. For example, I was enrolled in a general biology course as a freshman, and I would’ve been fine if I wouldn’t have also been such a social little butterfly. I spent that fall semester being merry with my new friends, but I regretted it pretty quickly once I sat down to take my final exam in December. I suddenly started to wish that I would’ve spent more time being studious than I did doing literally everything else. Now, however, I’m an English major at my university, and I actually plan to pursue vet school once I graduate. Yes, I’m choosing to spend my time in two completely different fields of study, but that’s where I’ve found peace. I have a passion for classic literature (and, more specifically, the poetry of John Keats), but I also find true happiness in working with animals. I’ve worked in a number of different animal hospitals throughout the years, and somewhere along the line, I decided that I want to keep doing it for the rest of my life. College is difficult, but it’s made me the person I am today.

We sit through never-ending lectures, cram for our exams the night before we take them, drink unhealthy amounts of coffee, and we live to tell the tale. I don’t think that any of this time and effort will ever be wasted, though. Yes, many of our classes seem pointless, but more often than not, that terrible professor begins to say something that actually sounds interesting. You start paying more attention in that “meaningless” class, and before you know it, you’re completely reconsidering your career choice. It happens; maybe not to every student, but to many of them it does. It happened to me in “Literary Tradition I” when my professor began reciting poetry. Her enthusiasm thoroughly confused me, and I had no idea how someone could ever find so much joy in reading poetry. Now, however, poetry holds a very special place in my heart, and the lessons I’ve learned from it will stay with me for the rest of my life.

So, with all of that said, I hope that all of us understand how life-changing of an experience college truly is. Yes, it’s stressful, and long, and difficult, but as long as we never stop pursuing our interests, happiness is inevitable.