At a young age, we are all told by our parents that they want us to finish grade school, go to college, graduate in four years, and be successful. To some people, graduating from college in four years seems like an easy task, but for others, it might not be the same case.

There is this pressure put on students to have everything together in as little as four years and a stigma around those who can't meet this "requirement" set by our society. This is a message to those students who may have had to switch majors because they couldn't keep up, those who just need a few more credits to graduate but might not be able to afford it right now, and everyone else in between IT IS ALRIGHT.

What would you rather do? Rush through college with barely average grades, or take your time and pass your classes with finishing every semester on the Dean's List? I'd rather pick the latter.

During this time in our lives, we want to do what our friends are doing, and we want to keep up with them, but it's actually much more important to worry about ourselves. I know you may be thinking, "Well, I want to graduate with my friends! I don't want to be left behind!" I'm going to let you in on a little secret: your friends don't care about leaving you behind, so you shouldn't care about being left behind.

Now, that may seem a little harsh, but it's true. We go to school to graduate and get a degree. Sure, it's fun to meet some great people along the way, but after graduation, we're all basically on our own to compete against others for jobs and internships.

The people who really matter in your life will always reach out to you even if you graduate later than expected. You are not a failure if you don't graduate in four years.

You're not a failure if you graduate in five or 10 years. You only fail when you decide that you've been in school too long, and you just quit. I actually changed my major at the beginning of my junior year of school and had to tack on another semester to my college career. Obviously, it was annoying to have to deal with at first, but once I accepted that that was the way it was, I felt better. I was alright because I knew that as long as I DID graduate, everything would be fine.

It's not the end of the world if you don't graduate in exactly four years, so don't beat yourself up about it and don't let anyone rush your success.