I'm sure you have heard from someone somewhere "Make the most of your college years! They're the best years of your life!"
TBH, I sure hope not.
Now don't get me wrong, I love going to Fresno State. And I really do love the learning aspect of school. I'm actually a not so secret nerd who super enjoys learning and even writing essays. College has also given me a ton of great opportunities like going to Italy over a summer and working at the Writing Center on campus. However, I don't love the stress.
College students are more stressed than ever. And the age old idea of college being one big party is a stereotype that just isn't true anymore. Most of the students I know work two or more jobs AND go to school full time. One girl I know works THREE jobs. I don't know how she does it. Another girl had a three-month-old baby and carried an 18 unit class load. She made us laugh with stories of reading her Ancient Lit assignments while rocking her screaming child, but I'm sure in the moment it wasn't funny to her.
To top it all off, even when we go home, even when the baby is asleep, we still have more work to do because we have homework. Our days off and "weekends" (whatever those are) are filled with studying and writing papers along with still making sure that our laundry gets done and dishes get washed. When people tell me to wait until I have a "real job" it makes me laugh because I really can't wait. Then at least my "time off" is really time off for the most part.
So yeah, when people tell me that these are the best years of my life, I kind of get sad. Not only because of the stress and the workload but because these are only four years in what (I hope) is at least a ninety year long life. If only four years of that are the best, I don't think I'm living it right.
I hope every year of my life is the best one. I hope that I fill it full of amazing memories that I can look back on and have trouble deciding which one was actually the absolute best. While I love the chapter of life I'm in, I can't wait for all the other ones too.
