Lauren Joseph“We’re here for a fun time, but not for a long time.” That quote just seems to be ringing in my ears lately. After this semester, I will be facing my senior year. Funny how I never thought that would happen; it always just seemed so far away. Now, every other email is about internships, sleep has become non-existent, trying to juggle classes and the extra-curricular that are so important and are so much apart of who I am have caused me to sit back and think, “Am I ready for the real world?”
When we are five years old, all we want to do is grow up. We want our dream jobs, get married, have kids; we want it all. Ideally, we can have it all. But for most of us, it isn’t just handed to us. We have to work at it, we don’t sleep, we drink coffee so that we can stay awake, however, I swear I’m trying to quit drinking the beverage that gives me my energy burst. But then I begin to think; if this isn’t the real world and the real world is going to be so much more stressful then what we have to deal with today, why am I spending every other hour of my day stressing and thinking about it? They say college is the best time of your life, how many of us can say we take advantage of it?
We have four years here. Four years to get an education? No. Four years to learn the most valuable lesson we will ever learn; friendship. I look at the friends I made during orientation, the freshman year quad, (the six-pack), the third floor of New Res and living in the basement of House 7 with some of the best friends you will ever find.
Friends fade in and out of those circles, but those who last are the most precious.
I guess my point is to say that four years seems like forever; we just can’t wait to grow up. When it does all end, because it will, what will you be left with? For me, it’s the stupid little thing; shampoo fights in Xavier freshman year, getting all glammed up for a night out with the girls, (even if the night out is just to the apartments), driving all night trying to find a McDonalds that’s open 24 hours, staying up all night and sleeping in a common area lounge because you’re afraid of the ghosts, watching that one television show with all of your friends where it is a rule that you can only talk during commercials, and those late nights where you just stay up and talk all night with your friends or significant other and you don’t even care that you have an 8:15 the next morning.
So while my classes may say that I will be ready for the real world when my time comes, I know that, at least for now, I want nothing more then the chance to keep making memories, laughing so hard my stomach hurts, and to do things that I want to do. College ends, the late nights will one day end, but the friendships and relationships that you make during that time are the things that will be with you for the rest of your life; I mean come on; you have to have something to tell the kids!
Posted to the Web by Lauren Joseph
