Column: College isn’t just a waiting season for adulthood

I have waited for things all my life: food at restaurants, my name on the role call, the end of every semester. I cannot count the number of buses I have waited for, sitting in a plexiglass shelter counting the seconds I’m wasting. Time spent at a bus stop is time spent in limbo; surreal, yet endless.

College is not a bus stop.

In a sense, college feels like a waiting period. It is easy to consider my years in school as simply an in-between time until the rest of my life begins. It feels like a break before ‘real life’ begins, a time between coming of age and becoming an adult.

Four years in college end in the blink of an eye, but this time isn’t something to just ‘get through.’ The opportunities college provides are unlikely to reoccur; you will never again be a twenty-something independent human in such close proximity to both educational opportunities and new experiences.

College is a time when choosing to put off homework to go on an impromptu camping trip is seen as acceptable. The experience of a weekend spent bonding with friends is invaluable compared to the grade on a single project.

The things that make college unique – minimal obligations, maximum opportunities, a close-knit, highly-involved community – are easy to take for granted. I’ve spent too many hours wishing away my college years, eager to begin my ‘real life’ post-graduation. But the things I choose to do in college will influence my life one way or another, whether I want them to or not.

College is not just about hanging up a paper degree above your desk. I have learned more outside the classroom than in it, and the pseudo-independence of the college lifestyle has allowed me to make mistakes and learn, without the weight of ‘real-world’ consequences.

The days between now and summer break feel like an empty eternity of final projects, lack of motivation and a level of procrastination that would make any senioritis sufferer proud. Yet when summer hits, it won’t be long before I feel the urge to start counting the days until I’m back at school. Wherever I am is never quite where I want to be.

With one year left, I feel the weight of real-world decisions beginning to pile up. I’m beginning to appreciate the time of exploration that college is now that I am coming to the end of my sojourn here.

College is not wasted space – it is space that should not be wasted. It is a buffer between childhood and the real world. A time to explore, a time to grow, a time to determine who you are and what you want. It’s a season of life, just like any other. Don’t wish it away, but take full advantage of it.

Don’t just wait for the bus.