You’ve thrown that graduation cap in the air and your real life officially started. No more late night cram sessions in the overcrowded library and no more crack of dawn tailgates with all of your best friends. While you may have shed one tear saying goodbye to your high school pals, this time you needed a whole box of Kleenexes to even make it across the stage. You can never get those years back, and even if you could, what would you miss?
I’m as Free as a Bird
When we first get to college, it’s almost like we’ve been chained to our parent’s fences all our life and now we’re finally able to break free. Wait… that’s exactly the case. We can go anywhere, do anything and how our lives end up is completely based on our own judgments. “College were the best years of my life; all I had to worry about was me and my campus job, but that really didn’t matter,” 2012 Davenport University graduate LaQuetta Buggs said. “Now that I’m out of college, all I think about is going to sleep to get up for work, and going to work so I can go home to sleep.” Seriously though, do college students even have a regular sleep schedule? Our schedules may get packed with classes, studying, student orgs and work, but we still have the freedom to do what we want without any real consequences.
The World is My Academic Oyster
The beauty of college lies in the four flexible years you have to figure out what the hell you want to do with your life. It’s a common misconception that in order to even begin your college career, you need to know the exact career you want to break into. Wrong. Having the opportunity to try out a variety of classes, join a bunch of clubs and switch your major up a couple times happens to highlight my motto these past four years: we’ll figure it out. “What I miss the most about college is being in a state of limitless possibility,” 2010 Texas Woman’s University graduate Jeanessa Smith said. “Choosing a major, dreaming of a future career and how it would impact my life — that was a time where I felt the world was open, and I could do anything.”
If I Fall, It Won’t Be Flat on My Face
Let’s be honest, we’re not completely adults yet. I don’t know what a bill outside of my rent and phone looks like, and you may not either. College affords us with a carefully-selected community of individuals who can help us with figure out the rest of our lives and counsel us on when our taxes are due. “You get to fall down and get back up with support. The level of responsibility you have in college is nothing like you have in the real world,” Buggs said. While you may feel completely frustrated with how your classes are going and don’t have plans lined up for after you graduate, you still have a helping hand in pretty much every building you walk into on your campus.
Having The Time to Part-ay
Asher Roth said it best, man I love college. The partying, the drinking, the friends who are down to party and drink at the drop of a hat, you just can’t get that same scenario in the real world. When your college years have come to a close, most of your friends will be too busy with their own heavy workloads, and dare I say, new friendships, that they won’t feel so inclined to head out to the bars on a Tuesday night. But, don’t get me wrong, the club still goes up on a Tuesday after you graduate. The turn-up just won’t be the same.
Being Able to Go Back to the Drawing Board
Sometimes we come out of college with a lot of expensive regrets. Why did I live there? Why did I have to take out that loan? Why did I hook-up with him and why did he get a job here after graduation, too? After college ends, there’s no chance you can ever go back and remedy any of your youthful mistakes. “If I could go back I would change my major completely. Right now, I’m working a job I don’t really need a degree for,” 2015 University of Central Florida graduate Jasmine Hanley said. With the many opportunities lined up for you in college, the path you take could be a straight line, or veer off in different directions. Whether you’re a freshman whose changed your major 10 times or a senior who has less than a semester to squeeze in that business minor, the chance to try again feels invaluable when you’re in the college world.
As the school year winds down and the next set of graduates go off into their pre-planned futures, the time spent at college will forever remain dear to their hearts. What other time in your life can you be so young and free, but still responsible and ambitious than while you’re in college? You may not see your college roommate ever again (which may or may not be a good thing) and you may not start drinking at 10 a.m. to tailgate for the big game anymore (or you might…). Either way, embrace these years for what they represent: a semi-adult with a campus full of possibilities.
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