So often we hear older people urge the younger generations to “not grow up too soon” or to “enjoy your youth,” so why don’t we?
As a college student myself, I have noticed that so many of my peers are so focused on protecting their peace and building over-productive routines that they often forget to enjoy the inherent freedoms that university life provides. At no other point in your existence will you have such access to community — to not take advantage of this would be to sacrifice the gift. So I plead: go out, make that day-trip, buy that ski pass, have fun.
College can be stressful, I get it. It can be easy to slip into the “LinkedIn grindset,” as I like to call it. This is a mentality that prioritizes a sleep schedule and built-in study hours. On their own, these are not inherently negative habits to build, not in the slightest, but this mindset leaves out essential experiences in a young person’s life. Such as, time to party with friends and goof off on the weekends.
You have the rest of your life to be boring, so why do it during your short time at college, a place where you are surrounded by some of the most interesting and fun people you’ll ever know? If you haven’t caught my drift yet: there is a time and a place to live the 9-to-5 lifestyle, university is not it.
So often we opt not to do the fun, interesting thing. We choose not to ask that cute person out, we feel too tired to go spend time with our friends, we save our money by not making that drive to the Bay Area. But who are you really hurting by not doing these things? The answer is nobody other than yourself. That person doesn’t care whether you ask them out or not, for the most part. Only you do, so do it. Everyone is always tired from school and life in general, to some degree, so go out anyways. You’ll earn that 80 dollars back that you would’ve spent on gas driving out to California, so do it.
You likely take no more than five classes, you might even have Fridays off from school entirely. Certainly, you have enough time to leave your room and live a little. Take it from someone who has as many majors as he has jobs (two): you can surely work Thirsty Thursday and a tailgate into your not-so-crowded schedule, it just takes the will to do it. Remember, it really is a mindset. You aren’t too tired to go to Lake Tahoe on Sunday, and you absolutely aren’t too busy to watch Monday Night Football with your friends.
Though I understand it may not be totally feasible to plan a day-trip to San Francisco or Yosemite National Park once a semester, it really wouldn’t kill you to do something seemingly outrageous every now and again. This really is the time of your life to do these types of things. Are you really going to get your money’s worth out of a ski pass every year when you’re 33 years old with two kids? Probably not. So get that pass now, go with your friends and make memories that will last you the rest of your life.
On the topic of being middle-aged with children, one day those children — or some other young person — will ask you what college was like. Do you really want to answer with a story consisting of waking up early and hitting your protein goal every day?
Realistically speaking, you’ll value the memory of a ridiculous night out with your friends much more than the memory of the productive morning you had because you chose not to go out the night before.
