Since it’s been a while, I guess it’s time for an update on how stressful school really is. No matter how many years you’ve dealt with it, it certainly doesn’t get any easier. But then again, it’s not supposed to, is it?
Here we are in week four of the spring semester and I can almost see the finish line. But looking at what’s ahead, I feel like the finish line might as well be in the middle of the ocean and I have no boat. This (academic) year has gone by so fast, but there are still twelve weeks left. My motivation is: Spring Break is in a month, then when I get back from that, finals are only about a month after. I’m so close to being done with this year, but what lies ahead may end up being an even bigger feat.
When classes end in May, summer classes will be right around the corner. Then the fall semester will start again. But then, when classes are all done and the degree is in the mail, what do I do? I can’t live at home forever. What if I don’t get a job? Do I just bum it up and live off of my parents until I’m thirty? Yes, this is all very drastic and yes, I know there is still plenty of time before I have to cross these bridges, but I’d like to be prepared.
Until then, all of us college students will still be chugging away and working hard towards a degree that will hopefully turn into a job offer someday.
Lindsay: I will give you some advice from an old man who was once in your shoes and feeling exactly what you are feeling. I will tell you the same thing I tell my eight year old daughter, every time she says “she wishes she was grown up”.
“There is no big rush to grow up. Because once you get there, you will wish you were young again.” It may seem like a strange view, but I burned right through my youth working hard owning a business and going to college. I was so consumed about becoming somebody important, that I forgot that I was already somebody important.
I look back and see all of the wonderful relationships I burned on my way to the top. It saddens me from time to time to remember all the girls I dated and dumped, because they did not fit into my plans. And over time, plans will change and so will our desire to have more. Then we realize that life is more than success and a degree.
The worst feeling I ever experienced was when I finally achieved my goals in life. I was at the top of my game with a BA and a very successful business. I had finally reached my dreams, only to discover the lonely and boring person I had become. Luckily life deals us second chances that I now find in my three kids. I just hope they don’t make the same mistake as me.