“I’ve learned one thing and that’s to quit worrying about stupid things. You have four years to be irresponsible here. Relax. Work is for people with jobs. You’ll never remember class time, but you’ll remember the time you wasted hanging out with your friends. So stay out late. Go out with your friends on a Tuesday when you have a paper due on Wednesday. Spend money you don’t have. Drink ‘til sunrise. The work never ends, but college does.” -Tom Petty

Do we ever really leave college?

Spending time with most of my friends who are college grads, I’ve learned a lot on this topic. College is supposed to the “best four years of our lives!” If you’re lucky enough to get it done in four. But are they?

I attend one of the smallest schools in the upper north of the US. Every single day I hear a new complaint either about the cold, lack of parties, or the area… the list goes on and on. But what people don’t realize is this is it. You are here for a reason. Now I’m not talking about you stumbling to Montana because your soul “guided” you to a 1,200 person student body. I’m saying that you put yourself here consciously.

Each and every day we are making decisions, of what our lives will amount to be. At some point, you decided to attend your University (or to not attend college at all) and whether you are happy about it or not, that’s where you are, so you might as well make it a fun freakin time. Throughout my first two years, I’ve realized that you are in complete control of how your experience turns out.

I spent a lot of months, days and hours contemplating what I wanted to do while I was here in college. I wondered if I even wanted to stay in college a few times. But while I was in my first two years, I realized I was taking so much for granted. You’re not going to get to stay up until 3 a.m with your friends in any another place, you’re not going to get to go on the spur of the moment trips to the neighboring town because you just feel like it. You’re not going to get to see your best friends every single day after this because you will go your separate ways, life will change.

While you’re at University, you are subject to a lot of freedom. What you do with that freedom will most likely dictate a lot of how your overall experience turns out. There are several types of people in college: the one who abuses his freedom, the one who is balanced in both their education and their ability to shotgun a beer, then there are those who don’t take advantage of their four years at all.

I was a girl who didn’t do college justice. Not at first. I tried to do the over the top party girl persona my first year but ended up back in my sheltered nature. By year two I took everything way too seriously: school, my sport, and my long-distance boyfriend were the only thing which existed. Why? Because that’s what I had decided was going to be my priority. I won’t argue that spending your time here should be done in a certain way, but I will say that you should spend it in a way that makes you happy and proud. People are subject to any experience they open themselves to. Constantly standing in the background wishing for a better tomorrow, a better environment, the best scenario is a waste of the little time you have here, whether it be in college or anywhere you are in this lifetime.