When you reach college, there is one big change that continues to grow as you come closer to graduation…all your friends are getting engaged. In 2016 alone, I have read over 15 engagement announcements on Facebook. And if you’re like me, you can’t wrap your head around this. It continually astounds you how the numbers keep growing and how almost all of these engagements happen while people are still in college. It seems like life won’t take a breathe and slow down. But this article is not about the commitments made between a couple. This is not about promising forever with your significant other. This is about reaching the season of engagements.

This is the time in your life for engaging. Engaging with others, engaging with studies, engaging with work, and engaging with experiences. This means getting involved. And involvement means true investment. We tend to go through the first two decades of our lives not fully investing in what’s around us. We tend to be too tired or too focused on our own endeavors to recognize those around us and the opportunities around us. Getting coffee with someone just becomes another task, going to class turns into an option, going to work is just a burden, and searching for experiences gets put on the back burner. We forget to actually engage in our own lives.

But this is truly the time for engagement.

This means finding your passions. Take time to do what you love to do. Investing in your passions will leave you full of joy.

This means investing time for others. Set aside time to see other people. Don’t make this another task to check off the list but rather a genuine desire to love others.

This means searching for experience opportunities. Find something that is new and exciting and that will give you great experience in life. Make memories.

This means finding joy in your work. Make the best of it even if it may not be the best job. Be grateful you have the ability to work and make money.

This means showing up to class. Pay attention and learn. You’re paying for this opportunity and have the opportunity to expand your mind. Use that opportunity to its max.

You’re not on this earth to be lazy or to only think about yourself. You’re here to love others, to learn, to work, to study, to experience. You’re here to engage. Although it may be difficult, engagement is truly the best way to come to love life. It may take a while to figure it all out. You’ll have to balance it all and at times it may be exhausting. But you’ll truly come to enjoy a life of engagement more than a life of laziness.

So put down your phone and engage in the lives around you. Lift up your head and engage in your class. Leave your room and engage in the world around you. Enjoy your life because it is short and deserves to be lived to the fullest.