Less Expectations, More Action
By Kaitlin Croney
“The best four years of your life.” How many times growing up did you hear that phrase used to refer to college? I for one heard it a lot, often accompanied with other comically stereotypical claims like “The friends you make in college will be your bridesmaids one day.” Maybe you never took these words to heart. But the more they are spoken, the more they set standards for what the college experience should achieve.
A few months ago, I had a group of friends over to my apartment. Over pizza and wine (one of the best ways to bond), we started talking about our lives, the decisions which led us to our school, and the experiences we have had since the first step we took into our freshman dorm rooms. To my surprise, almost all of these friends confessed they didn’t feel their college experience fell anywhere close to the cliches which surround it.
Soon after, it was the holiday break, and my best friends from home returned from their various colleges. We spent the next month catching up on each other’s lives away from one another. In the past four years, some of us (myself included) ended up at schools and cities different from the places we once thought we wanted, others simply changed their major once or more (also me), or became involved in activities that we never knew we would (this one, too). Through all of these changes, these friends of mine also agreed that many expectations we once held for college are stereotypical and often unrealistic. But the most important thing we could all agree on was that time has moved so fast; we can’t believe we are graduating in just one semester.
When you don’t know someone well, it’s easy to assume that their life has worked out exactly how they wanted it to, or that they made deliberate choices which landed them in the present moment. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned from personal experience, and one thing which I am continually taught with each day, life has strange ways of challenging what you thought at one time you wanted, leading you down paths you never thought you’d go, and teaching you important lessons. Even the people you sometimes feel you know better than yourself surprise you in these four years of life called college. The past four years have had their ups and downs, comfortable times, and not so comfortable times. Whether your college has become your second home or you’ve spent years in a place you are still a bit unsure about, it is undeniable that this period of time is one of invaluable growth and experience. Whether you’re a senior or a freshman, jump in and surround yourself with things that fuel you; you get out of your experience what you seek. If there is one thing college has taught me, it is that every journey is unique, as it should be. Don’t ever let expectations or comparison cause you to lose sight of that.
