Ever seen “Good Will Hunting,” “Euro Trip” or “Van Wilder” and wondered what happened to the college life that was supposed to be? All the fun, craziness and drama that these college flicks portray seems like such a sham.
Trust me; I am in a law school. When I look around me, at people always talking about life in the real world, running off to their respective internships or burying themselves under a pile of textbooks thick enough to literally bring the people reading them to tears, I wonder, is this all that college was supposed to be?
I mean, come on. College is a phase for transformation when we stop being careless teenagers and start being a little more responsible. We step out of our homes and learn to survive without our mothers making sure that we have clean clothes to wear or food at the right times.
We learn to survive amongst people we can’t stand, we learn to survive on noodles and being broke almost always, we deal with shifting houses and roommates, we lose people with whom we expected to friends forever, we meet people who stick around no matter what and most importantly, we make of memories.
Can you imagine if all the three or four or five years of your college life were just filled with the memories of how many research papers you wrote, the moot court competitions you won and how your grades consistently put you at the top of the class?
Since when has this measured college life? Seriously, is this what you want to tell your kids? That your college life was all work and no play?
I know you want to be a solid role model parents to your future kids, but once in a while, you’ll want to tell them about all the wild things you did in your time, even if it’s just so they can learn from your mistakes.
We assume that serious changes in our lives happen slowly and over time, but it’s not always true. Great stuff happens in an instant. Sometimes, you don’t even know that something has changed.
You think you are still you and your life is still your life. Then one day you wake up and don’t recognize anything — at all. You never forget the moment when you become that person.
The switch flips. Suddenly, you are not playing dress up anymore. What you may not notice is that the moment when you have this epiphany, you change.
So, before this change happens, stop the “all work and no play” policy. Live life. Pull an all-nighter and watch your favorite movie before a final exam. Get drunk enough at a party to do crazy, random sh*t that you won’t remember the next day and get all embarrassed when your friends recount what you did.
Annoy the professors. Get thrown out of class. Go to class hungover. Ditch lectures for a pool party. Date a person who is wrong for you. Get your heart broken. Break somebody’s heart. Flirt shamelessly. Love once.
Go on an unplanned adventure. Make a lot of friends. Find a passion. Stick to it. Get into a nasty fight. Become the referee for somebody else’s brawl. Get stuck in a bar with a huge bill and no money.
Hitchhike. Do every crazy thing you have always wanted to do because you will grow up sooner than you may realize. You will get a job, earn a living, settle down and have a family.
Grades are important; after all, you need that decent job, right? Yet, who said that’s all you need?
Indulge now. Once this time passes, there will be no looking back.
