We have all had those midnight hours in the library, pumping coffee into our veins where time slugs by, but approaches quickly as the sun starts to rise and that test. The one damn test you know you’re going to bomb is going to kill your mood for the rest of the week. Please note: this isn’t an article about how to manage your time. This isn’t a list of, “10 college life lessons”. This is not advice and this sure as hell isn’t a post about how to run your life, but I’m going to tell you something you really need to know: YOUR GPA, YOUR HOMEWORK, YOUR EXAMS (believe it or not) are the most minuscule detail of your college career and if you are stressing about not making the Dean’s list and you’re spending half the day in the library, and you’re letting it consume you, you need to take a step back and give yourself some credit. Of course be responsible and get your shit done, but if you want to be successful, and by successful, I mean authentically happy, well. Keep reading.
Yes, technically I pay a disgusting amount of money for a chemistry course I will never use (sorry science majors, I’m all about the business) or a philosophy class where my professor is F***ing insane, but look at it this way: you’re not paying for your GPA or for the A on that paper you slaved away at. You’re paying for the vital college experience that will provide you the basis and resources to get you on the right track. I’m going to be brutally honest for a second. You were a sheltered teenager (I don’t care, be mad at me if I called you sheltered) cause for the first time, you are truly on your own and now you have the accessibility to be independent. So keep an open mind for a hot sec:
Let everyone and anyone in your life: my freshman year I joined a sorority. & as consciously, shallow as it felt, I still acquainted a responsibility and almost accountability to only hang out with them and people like them. (Side note: If you’re an incoming freshman, I beg you to not let Greek life stereotypes run your life, both Greeks and GDI's by the way, because it happens to the best of us until we look back and realize we were complete idiots). Anyway, moving on, now what do I say? Screw that and start meeting and running into strangers. I double dog dare you to have conversations with the guy working out next to you at the gym and the “basic” girl drinking Starbucks next to you in class, and the restaurant owner at your favorite bar and the old woman who’s always working at the 7/11 down the street, and your professors, and the photographer creating art on the run you went on and the family behind you in the grocery line. You get it… because one subconscious thought you should erase from your mind: don’t ever think you’re better than anyone else & don’t ever think they are better than you. Let everyone and anyone inspire you who you want to be or don’t want to be.
It’s okay to change. I think college is a very confusing time because part of you feels like an adult and part of you feels like you have no idea what the f*** you’re doing. Why do you feel like you have no idea what you’re doing? Cause you don’t. You physically and scientifically have not lived long enough or had the opportunity to know exactly what you are doing and that’s why you need to change, fail and keep trying. I used to get discouraged when I would talk to an old friend and they would say, “you’ve changed” or “you’re different than you were freshman year.” Now, I’m like “hell yeah I have!” Change is good. Weird is great. Do your thang.
The experiences you are gaining outside the classroom are valuable af. Although, I am sure it was great, I am really not talking about your study abroad experience to Spain. I define a good experience as something you went out of your comfort zone to do and a great experience as something that you didn’t even plan. And honestly? This really varies from person to person. For me? Alright, I’ll give you a few personal examples: eating 4am taco bus on a diet, singing karaoke with a paid musician when it’s not karaoke night (I am not a good singer), buying tickets to a random music festival, Pokemon go > Happy hour, sneaking onto a rooftop pool, kissing under a lightning storm in an open field (dumb, but fun btw), getting shitfaced off Tequila Sunrises at 10am and putting on midnight ukulele concerts for your friends and their friends until they want to kill you. These are the things you are going to remember so BRING OUT YOUR INNER WEIRDO, STOP CARING and I promise this will shape you into what you want to be. Erase your inner basic, cause no one wants that at the end of the day. Gross.
Okay, so I lied. Maybe this was advice, but it’s because I NEED you to give yourself some credit to forgive yourself for the test you didn’t do so well on. Because if you just take a look back on what you have done so far and reflect on the people you met, the experiences you engaged in and most importantly, the growth and change you have seen in yourself, you will see that, that A on your exam isn’t what’s going to prepare you, it’s this. These are the things that will help you gain perspective from all angles of life. These are the things that will make you authentically happy. These are the things that will let you naturally be successful (yes, I related success to tequila sunrises). So stop letting your GPA consume you. Give yourself a break. And me? I’m going to go eat some cheesecake (drops mic).
