When I was in high school, I was told that college was going to be the best four years of my life. I would have my first taste of freedom, which would lead to going out the night before a big exam, finding a group of friends who would support every dumb decision I would want to make, and more memories than I had ever hoped to make. When you hear stories from parents or relatives about the best times of their lives, they often tell a college story. However, while I’m having the best time of my life so far in college, I refuse to let these four years be the best years of my entire life.
These are the first years I’ve had my own freedom and responsibilities. I’m trying to figure out who I am and what I want to do with my life. In high school, everyone has their own clique and social label. In college, none of that matters. There are no restrictions on the type of person you want to be and how you’re going to be that person. I’m living in a tiny dorm room, eating cafeteria food that destroys your digestive system, and drowning in school work. Some days I go to class in my pajamas because I’m too tired to get up more than 5 minutes before I have to leave. My room has clothing, cups, and food everywhere and I really need to do my laundry before I run out of socks. But if college is the only experience that is going to create the person I will be for the rest of my life, I really need to get my life together.
There is so much that happens in your life after college. There are puppies to adopt, tequila shots to take, cookies to bake, and two am domino orders to consume. You can move to a completely different country, or move back home. You have an entire life ahead of you to start a career, family, or both. There’s the joy of renting your first apartment and decorating it the way you want it. The satisfaction that occurs when you achieve something you were told was unattainable. Being able to watch your siblings and own children grow up isn’t necessarily going to happen in college. There is so much more to life than college and the college life.
Taking all of that, though, there is absolutely no reason why college needs to be the best years of my life. At age 18-22, I’m attempting to figure out who I am and what kind of person I want to be. Why should the first four years of my life on my own be my best years? What about when I get my own little apartment, my first job, and am really out in the real world? What about when I get married and have children? What about when my children graduate high school or college? Sure, college years are fantastic and allow you to define yourself, but there are so many other great things that happen in the course of a lifetime that aren’t college. I don’t want to graduate college and think that at age 22 that the best years of my life have already passed. I refuse to believe that my best years have to happen when I’m too young to legally drink and too old to receive a free education.
