College is the Best Nightmare You've Ever Had

College is a very stressful time in many young students' lives. Whether it be dealing with studies, having a social life, remembering to eat or anything that is jumbling up your brain. Freshmen to super seniors, being a college student can be exhausting every single minute of every day. Students have exams every week, deadlines that are past due, significant others who need attention, social events that are required to be attended through one of the many organizations that you are a member and a Netflix series that needs to be binge-watched. Now, I understand that those things may not seem necessary or you may be saying, "Why don't they just get a planner?", or "Why do they need to watch Netflix? They are wasting their time in college doing stupid things, they should be focusing on their education." I am here to tell the angry parents and grandparents to calm down. College is about gaining experience in every aspect of life. College is about growing as a person, learning from your failures, staying up until 3 o'clock in the morning watching "Stranger Things" and going out with your friends on the weekend. The lives that all of us 18- to 24 year-olds are living are wild and crazy, but that is okay because we would not want it any other way.

Everyone always talks about the "college experience" and it is a great one, at least with my experience. Staying up late while writing a paper that is due the next day in your freshman year writing course or cramming for an exam in a class that you haven't even been to in two weeks, that is part of the experience. It may be scary and stressful at the time but I wouldn't take instances like those back. It may sound weird for those people who have never experienced it but staying up late being a procrastinator with your friends is an amazing experience. All college students have some sort of homework that they could be doing at all point in times during the school year. There are assignments that are due later on during the school year that we could be working on, but we won't. We will wait until the last minute just like we always do. In my opinion, there are better things a student could be doing than focusing on homework. They should be getting involved with organizations, going to meetings and philanthropy events, hanging out with friends getting ice cream from the local Dairy Queen or just not focusing on school. College is not just about education, it's about much more than that. 

If you are a student, take some time for yourself and watch Netflix, take a breath, close your laptop. This time is for you to find yourself and enjoy things that are interesting to you. Don't worry about your microeconomics assignment due next week. Live your life however you want to live it. Drop out and join a rock band for all I care. As long as your happy. Don't be afraid to tell people how you really feel. Stay up late, go out and party, procrastinate, be a menace to society, do whatever you want. Enjoy college while it lasts. Hey, make it last longer if you want, take a few victory laps. Live it up because being a grown up is terrible.