Now that we’re in the swing of the new semester, everyone hopes this will be the greatest time of their life. Whether this is your first semester or your final one, I’m going to let you in on a little secret: the typical college experience doesn’t exist. It simply isn’t real.
So, what do I mean by the “typical college experience?” In short, everything you’ve seen in the movies and on TV is a complete lie. Well, maybe not all of it, but certainly most of it. Most depictions of college show the main character immediately finding their best friends the second they move into their massive dorm room from a Pinterest board, knowing exactly what they want to study, partying it up every single night and still managing to ace their full course load because all their classes are just oh-so-easy. If you’ve found what I described to be your actual college experience, then congratulations!
However, if you’re more like me and find this generalization of college to make you feel bad about yourself, then know you’re not alone. Everybody I know has found the “typical college experience” to be so unbelievably inaccurate. Not everybody makes awesome friends when they move in, not everybody has an idea of what they plan on doing for the rest of their lives and certainly not all college students go to their classes without any sort of struggle. And that’s okay because it’s completely and utterly normal.
I’ve come across many people who tell you what you should be doing when you’re in college. You should go to parties every weekend. You should spend every waking moment studying. You should find an internship. You should pick a major that’s marketable and will help you make money once you graduate. You should go to grad school. You should find a job right after graduating. You should go to every event your schedule has room for. You should adore your school and all the people you meet. You should, you should, you should.
Well, do you want to know what I think you should do? I think you should do whatever the heck you want to do while you’re in college. This is probably the first time in your life you’ve ever felt free to make your own choices for how you want to live your life. So, why do we feel the need to listen to everybody else about what we “should” be doing when we’re in college? Party if you want to, or don’t if you choose not to spend your time that way. Join every club your campus has to offer, or only pick one that you really love. Take the internship, or just focus on your studies and your social life. It’s totally up to you because it’s your college experience. Not anybody else’s, so don’t let anybody tell you that you’re doing college wrong. There is no wrong way to do college because there isn’t one cookie-cutter way to do it either.
Basically, all I want you to remember is that however college goes for you is the perfect way to experience it, even if it’s vastly different from what everybody thinks you “should” be doing. Live it up any way you want to because how you spend your college years should be totally up to you. And that’s the secret to finding the perfect college experience.