I turned 20 a few weeks ago and of course, I thought this would be a great time to think about all of the things that I am going to in my next 20 years in no true particular order.
What do you want to do by the time you're 40?
College campuses have stairs literally everywhere. Even outside sidewalks have stairs! Going up each and every stair step can be exasperatingly tedious. In my personal opinion, the best way to conquer any step-laden campus is by taking them two at a time. I promise, it saves the patience you will need to last that three hour lab.
man making a coffee lattePhoto by Jennifer Bedoya on UnsplashLike one kid in my biology class said, “I went from never having a cup of coffee in my life to having one everyday.” No matter how you take your caffeine: Coffee, soda or an energy drink, when you've had one of those extremely late nights, caffeine is a must! It's the only way to make it to the next gap in your day when you can finally take a nap.
Photo by Unseen Studio on UnsplashI had to include this one because most college freshmen finally cultivate study skills during their first year in college. More or less, fortunately, I had developed some prior to arriving at college due to my insanely hard high school courses. But this is a truly important survival skill, which is first after scouting out free food.
This is a survival skill at the most basic level — never pass up the opportunity for free food. There is nothing like the instant regret minutes after passing up a meal for which you didn't have to fix or pay. A few good places to check are: Club meetings, those weird campus events named after obscure holidays and over-zealous outside organizations that are in desperate need of college student involvement.
Photo by Sinitta Leunen on UnsplashI should probably have more dignity than this, but college has taught me how to sleep literally anywhere. I mean, after all, why do you think the student centers and lounges sport comfy couches and lounge chairs? And even if they aren’t all that comfy, we'recollege students and can’t be too choosy. If your room is halfway across campus and you only have 30 minutes before your next class, curling up in that green lounge chair is just as good as crawling in your bed.
Photo by Kate Stone Matheson on UnsplashDo you remember that crazy period in your life when you coiled at the mention of taking a nap or going to bed. Your motto for life was, “Kinda work hard, and play really hard.” Well, you are about to regret every nap you ever gave up in your life. Your motto is about to become, “Work hard, play hard and cry over missed sleep.” Sleep is a precious commodity in college, but there just isn’t enough of it. Whoever learns to bottle up a nap and sell it will be rolling in the dough.
Procrastination is something you did in high school because you were too busy attending ten different clubs and creating a killer resume for college. At college, procrastination happens because looking at that chemistry homework is just too sad and painful. So instead we become masters at productive procrastination. Doing other, easier homework, taking an extra nap, running to the gym, checking the dining hall for more pizza and calculating your current grade in a class are perfect ways to distract your mind from the sad reality of school without feeling completely guilty.
This was not an exhaustive list at all, but just a small insight into the many skills for which my college tuition has already paid. Many thanks to my parents who allowed me to learn these valuable life lessons; college really was worth the tuition money.
College is some of the greatest years of anyone's life. Its a time to be outrageous, different and free; a time to do everything you were afraid to do. Here are 38 things you will learn during your four (maybe, five or six) years in college!
Because you will most likely be joined by five or six other people doing the same thing.
Eighteen? We just learned how to do laundry and effectively cut the crust off of our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, but we're expected to decide on a lifelong career? There are people who are 50 years old who still don't know what they want to do with their lives.
Organizing and budgeting money is something that takes time to master. Saving every last dime is completely unrealistic. Many of us just made the switch from Piggy Bank to Citibank. Our financial priorities up to this point have been gas and food, not the thousands of dollars of debt we'll eventually be in.
Photo by David Clode on UnsplashWe're in college. We're busy. We'll be surviving off of caffeine and the 15 minute power naps we'll take between classes. Is it healthy? Probably not. But adjusting to busier schedules and a heavier workload takes time. Unfortunately, it's hard for us to accept that we can't take five hour naps after class like we did when we were younger.
Again, we're in college. We're poor. A not-so-healthy diet is the least of our problems. We'll be living off of Ramen noodles, Easy-Mac, and whatever free or discounted food we can get our hands on.
College is a time that we'll meet and befriend a lot of people -- the good and the bad. Believe it or not, the drunk kid streaking in 20 degree weather all around campus actually has a 4.0 GPA and goes to church every week. We may not be best friends with the 'poster child' students, but we can assure you we will learn many lessons from them and make some pretty laughable memories in the process.
We're going to make mistakes. It's inevitable.
