Hopefully every College student has heard the saying that goes, "College is the best four years of your life." This is quite true, depending on how you use your time.

College is inconceivable until we actually experience it, and with the amount of change we endure from it, it's easy to forget about the things that we should be focused on.

With this being said, college is also one of the most interesting places for people our age. For many of us, it is in a completely unfamiliar place. However, usually the new town feels more familiar the more we get the feel for college. It feels as if a giant bubble surrounds us and it’s our own little world of people in the same state as us. We will never be able to experience this realm-like reality again, so we should aim to get the most out of college as we possibly can. Let us not lose sight of what's important, from the new here and now we have at college, because after we graduate, the college life isn't the only thing we won't be able to experience the same again.

Listed below are parts of college we may lose sight of, or forget to partake in, because we are caught up in the fast-paced college life.

Traveling

The one thing everyone loves yet forgets to do as often as they should.

A recent study about traveling reinvents the phrase, ">oney can't buy happiness," not in the sense that it claims money does buy happiness, but rather that happiness can be attained with money if the spending is used wisely, rather than impulsively, such as on material things. The study indicates that experiences bring far more joy than material goods. Even if it's simply going to an art museum, a national park, or an entirely new place, traveling in college is essential. It can be costly traveling to more expensive places, but it is far more meaningful to have memories, than an old iPhone that has outdated software and is deemed "boring," because of another new iPhone.

After college, traveling is much more complicated, especially to plan with friends. While we are free birds (compared to the real world) and still have the energy we do while were young, we should set aside more time to travel.

I think traveling is an essential activity for young people in college who are still finding themselves, figuring out what they want to do, (and have a lot of curiosity).Traveling is also a good way to spend time with friends and family, or even to just be by ourselves and explore new parts of the world with our own thoughts, so travel away!

Family Comes First 

We’re so invested in focusing on our friends in our college years, that we forget to really spend time with our parents.

We have it in our minds that we will just see them again for break, but then come break time we’re back to school before we know it. It is odd being back home for break, after being in charge of your own life for months on end, and then going back to parental authority. We tend to try to hang out with friends when we get home, because we haven’t seen our friends from other colleges, or from our hometown, for months.

What we should be doing is appreciating the limited times we have with our parents while we can. One day we may actually miss them yelling our name for dinner or telling us to take out the trash.

Put the phone down at dinner when you go home for break, because after you graduate and get your own job, dinner with them won’t be the same, and it won't happen nearly as often.

Cook

Going back to the fact that we should invest more time to spend with our parents, we should also take advantage of the fact that one or both of them can teach us cooking skills.

Not everyone loves cooking, but eventually we all have to learn to cook more than ramen noodles and macaroni. Everyone in college should try to cook while we are able to, so that when we are out there in the real world, we don’t have to learn then, on top of everything else we are just learning.

Best of all, cooking saves money, and sometimes makes bigger portions than if you went to a restaurant and ordered the same thing. If you don't have an exceptionally large kitchen, or no kitchen at all, many on-campus buildings have kitchens in the dorms. Collaborate with friends to combine cooking supplies, and ideas.

Classes -- and not just the ones we need to take.

If you ever have extra space on your schedule, it can be a good decision to invest in a class you have never taken before. Best of all, money doesn't always have to be involved when there are free online classes that are offered by organizations like Coursea.

I was surprised to find, after learning that I needed to take microeconomics for my major that had nothing to do with the subject, that I am fascinated about economics. And I was glad to discover this interest now, rather than later in life when I have a job to focus on. Some people might even find their true skill by exploring other classes. While we are in the learning zone, and at a time where our minds and individual selves are developing, we should explore our intellectual abilities and interests. You never know what you might discover by delving into a topic you've never heard of before.

As stated earlier with the example of using money to travel instead of on material things, we have the choice of using our life in college to a more meaningful extent. Experiences in college will contribute to happiness, which ultimately helps fuel the workload we often have. Don't forget the things aside from college. It only lasts so long, but family, friends, cooking, and traveling, will be there for the rest of our lives.