When asked my age, “almost twenty-one” definitely is not my first thought. What does come to mind is fifteen or sixteen, followed by a shocking realization that, wait no, I am actually much older. Where did the time go?
When asked what grade I am in, my inner young Nittany Lion wants nothing more than to say freshman, but when in fact I am already now half way done with my time as a college student.
This amazes me.
How is it that I feel as though I moved into my cramped freshman dorm, nervous and anxious to start life’s new chapter, just yesterday?
Days turned to weeks, weeks to semesters, and just last week I found myself packing up my belongings as I finished up my sophomore year.
Friends and classmates all shared similar thoughts in disbelief, “How on Earth are we half way done?”
The time has come where, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” is not just a simple elementary school project, but a reality in which you need to figure something out as soon as possible.
By the end of sophomore year, you need to finally declare a major, if you have not done so already. With that, you then immediately begin the hunt for a summer internship, something which could either excite or terrify you. Fostered from the awareness of these new steps in your life, comes the unsettling understanding that you really are making your way over the hump into adulthood.
“Am I even ready to be an adult?” you ask yourself quite often. For many, in just two short years you will dive head first into the “real world.” But will you stay afloat?
You would like to think yes, two years is a long time to grow and mature and learn everything you need to know in order to successfully enter that dreaded “real world.” But you are just done saying how the first two years of college flew by, so what is stopping the next two from doing the same?
Nothing is. The years will fly by and may even seem to go faster. Don’t let this scare you.
“College was the best four years of my life,” almost every single relative of yours has said, and so far they have not been wrong. But what we seem to forget is what we are told when we are much younger.
Time flies when you’re having fun.
True? Yes.
Left out is the fact that time also flies when you are not having fun. You spent long hours trying to keep your eyes open as you flipped through that dusty textbook in preparation for finals. Time may have seemed to barely inch by during those moments, but now looking back on it – man, did time fly.
Don’t let the popular thought that "being a junior means you are now irrelevant" settle into your mind. You may become irrelevant at Sigma Apple Pi’s super awesome themed parties, but who cares? You are now becoming something those freshman and sophomores are not – relevant in the “real world.”
Be proud of that! Growing up is an amazing process and just be thankful that you have the resources to do so in such an intelligent and poised manor.
The thought of having only two years left of college may initially be accompanied with some sadness, but in reality it should be looked at as an exciting countdown until you can elicit change in the world by getting out there and putting your years of hard work into action.
I would be lying if I said I did not love college; these years really do seem to be the best years so far. I would also be lying if I said I was not excited for the future.
See this half way mark as an accomplishment, a leap into the right direction.
The “real world” is now within reach, will you embrace it?
