“Man, I promise, she’s so self-conscious. She has no idea what she doin’ in college. That major that she majored in don’t make no money….but she won’t drop out, her parents’ll look at her funny.”
If you’re anything like myself, these lyrics have never rendered truer in your life than they do right now. You’ve hit that phase in college where you’ve realized it’s almost time to graduate and you have no idea what you’re going to do next. You’ve followed the exact plan society set in order to become successful but now you’re considering if success is enough to keep you happy when this is all set and done. You’ve finally hit that phase where you must decide if you will you take a risk for a shot at happiness and purpose? Or will you play it safe for the assurance of security?
If there’s one thing that all college students across the world can agree on, it is that during these four short years of our lives we experience some of our greatest trials which force us to make some life changing decisions. Whether it’s choosing your person, securing your major or taking a chance with that entrepreneurial idea you’ve always had, we can all agree that college is stressful.
In college we long to solidify absolute freedom for ourselves. We want to make our own choices, carve out our own path and leave all opinions from the outside world behind us…. yet, many of us can’t. We come into college confident that we will be strong enough to make our own choices and decide our own life and yet through it all we still remain caged. You see, people tell you that college is an opportunity to be your truest self, but if your college is anything like mine, that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Through observation, one can easily see that college is a place where the supposedly free and the actually insecure individuals go to say they’re really doing something. I mean how many times have you heard “I’m living my best life!”…Are you really?
Does that club you’re in feed your soul or your resume? Do you love that person or the way they make you look? Is that major for you… or your parents? Is that internship worth it or are you simply following a path someone else paved?
What they don’t tell you about college is that it will all fall down…. over…and over again. If you’re doing it right. When you finally choose your own path and your own journey it will all fall down and that is okay.
Freedom ain’t free.
Freedom is work.
Freedom is scary.
But it is the only way to settle that unsettling feeling in your stomach. As college students we must all be intentional about the paths we choose because these are the years where we must eliminate all outside noise and open our hearts and minds to finding our own truths. So as graduation approaches and you decide upon your future.
Let it all fall down.
Get rid of everything that clouds your true identity and embrace the path to finding more.
A wise man once asked, “Is there more?”
I guess the answer to that is, “If you seek it.”