It’s 9 p.m. on a Friday night and, usually, you’d be getting ready to go out, but tonight you’re unmotivated. It feels like you’re doing the same thing every weekend and your body is tired. Not to mention, you have five assignments due next week – big ones – but again, the motivation isn’t there. All you want to do is crawl up in your bed and binge watch New Girl for four hours straight until you fall asleep with a pile of Cheetos on your chest with no papers or studying to complete. This phenomenon is common. We’re nearing the end of spring semester and with warmer weather and friends from other universities getting out early, it seems almost impossible to do anything academically or socially anymore. You miss your bed at home. You miss good food. You’re in a rut, my friend. And here are some motivating points to get you back on track for these final few weeks of the school year:
A cliche, but college only happens once! Time is limited in this highly unique space that you are paying for. I mean, when are you ever going to be in a place with a concentrated number of young, hormone-boosted individuals and without your parents breathing down your neck?! This is college. You were meant to savor every part of it. Through trial and error, you were meant to make the most mistakes and learn from them. Rather now than later. The real world sucks.
Socially, the parties won’t be the same over the summer. Most of the time, the bars and clubs won’t even be accessible. Wasting a good night of partying or hanging out with your friends is senseless because in three weeks, after you’ve been apart from the same people you’ve seen every day for the past four months, you’re going to miss them immensely. And you’ll wish you spent every last bit of time creating memories. You have the rest of your life to be alone! I think it’s important to surround yourself with people who would rather go out and do something rather than giving into their exhaustion. Sure, you may have an inspirational quote in your Instagram bio or wear a necklace that says ‘c’est la vie’, but do you really live every day like it’s your last? Probably not. This is your chance to be active and careless.
Academically, your university gives you so many opportunities to learn. There are guest lectures almost every day and school-run events with career and networking opportunities. You pay for these seemingly ‘free’ opportunities, therefore staying in your room to watch the latest Netflix movie over attending an event that interests you is straight-up dumb. If you’re in college for the right reasons, then you understand how arbitrary high school felt and the craving for something more – something outside of the classroom – to stimulate you mentally. Go out and find an event. Keep on grinding through your work. The efforts will surely pay off and you need to take advantage of everything college has to offer, or everything they’re scamming you for in order to charge such a high tuition bill.
Do it for yourself. Go out with a bang. Stop wallowing. Finish this school year off on a high point. The summer will be long and much needed, but you’re running out of time to be young. This is prime time. It’s supposed to be exciting and new, so let it be.