College is a lot like most experiences we have in life – we never really get to appreciate it in the moment until it’s finally over. Well, if there’s one piece of advice that resonates amongst current undergraduates and recent college graduates, it should be to make the most of your time in college.
Billy Madison said it best: stay here as long as you can, for the love of God.
There’s no excuse for not going all out, because, in reality, it is the last time you will be able to act like an absolute savage with reckless abandonment toward the rules of normal society.
If you feel like you haven’t maximized your collegiate experience, here are 10 reasons why you should stay until you have:
1. Post-Grad Life Sucks
This bullet point serves as the umbrella statement, or general theme, for this post. Life moves pretty fast and the real world sinks in once the protection of being a college a student has been vacated. Parents, family members and friends become less accepting and more abrasive. Jobs require a majority of your time, whether you have one or looking for one. Activities, such as partying and sleeping in late, that you’ve grown accustomed to over the past four years aren’t tolerated.
In summary, life after college blows.
2. The Return Home vs. Living Alone
Partying and sleeping in aren’t the only elements of college that have become like second nature – living amongst others your age and the fraternal life that comes with it has become the norm. Well, once you receive that college diploma that all ends. There are no more 3 a.m. nights with your roommates finishing off the final drops of Jim Beam; no more comrades to lean on when you can’t walk home. Instead, the brutal reality is you’re either moving back to live with mom and dad for a little while or you’re moving into a one-bed, one-bath apartment in some obscure part of town.
In case you were wondering, if these two options were pitted against one another in a boxing match there wouldn’t be a winner. Both situations are equally awful.
3. No More Month-Long Benders
Once you exit the gates of college you can say goodbye to excessive drinking, whether it comes in the forms of a bender (four or more consecutive days of heavy boozing) or just simply day drinking. Unless you’re a fully functioning alcohol, the real world will reject you and spew you out if you try to drink like you did in your college days. The daily visit to the local liquor store will quickly become a weekly or monthly trip and that’s depressing to think about.
4. ‘Experimental’ Phase Ends
Perhaps the No. 1 luxury of being a college student is being able to experiment with substances or situations that you will never get the opportunity to seize in the real world. Whether it is with drugs or sex, the promiscuity of college life doesn’t last very long. It’s a short period which makes it all the more precious.
5. Disappearance of Dreams
The phrase “Dream Job” is mentioned a lot during your four years in school, whether it is by parents, professors or peers. The enduring truth of graduating college is that the ideal you’ve been working towards is nowhere to be found now that you’re out of school. You will have to settle to work somewhere and soon all the hope and promise from college will be gone.
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