Make something of your four years

I started crying in the grocery store Saturday. While sorting out hot dogs and buns for a camp-out I was about to embark on, I was chatting with my best gal pal on my cell phone. I had been trying to convince her to come camping with me, and thought I had succeeded. \nBut while I was picking out ketchup and mustard, she told me she had too much studying, housework and sleeping to do and wouldn't be able to come.\n And there in the condiment aisle, I realized that this terrific four-year rollercoaster ride is coming to an end, and I have less than a week to cram in as much quality time with my friends as possible. Sure, I'll keep in touch with them after graduation, maybe even come back to visit for a reunion next year. But life will never be like this again.\nConsider the life of a college student.\nYou get up about an hour (if that) before your first class, which can be anything between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. You go to your classes, stopping in between to talk to the many people you know on campus. On any given day, you might run into a girl who lived on your floor freshman year, someone you went to high school with and your current next door neighbor.\nAfter classes, you might go home and take a nap. If you feel up to it, you study for a while. If not, you veg with your roommates or make plans to go out for the evening.\nThrough classes, activities and jobs, you have an instant circle of friends your own age, most with similar interests. \nSchool nights are fair game for parties, bar hopping and any other procrastination. You say you can't go out on a Monday night? But it's happy hour at Kilroy's on Kirkwood, and you don't have class till 1 p.m. on Tuesdays!\nWant to go on a road trip? Just skip your Friday classes (if you have any) and hit the road!\nLife will never be this carefree, this responsibility-free, again. When I move on to the real world, I won't be able to skip work because it's beautiful outside, or blow off my job for 15 cent draft night at the Bluebird. I will not have the huge circle of friends in my sorority. I won't have a fabulous roomie who is always willing to order food with me or give me her shoulder to cry on when I need it. \nWhat I will have is responsibility. And as much as that scares the living daylights out of me, it's a step I'm willing to take. I've spent the last four years having a damn good time, all the while keeping my grades up enough to get into a decent law school and building my resume with work experience here at the IDS. I even had the privilege of spending the most amazing year studying abroad in Canterbury, England, and travelling around Europe.\nAs much as it will hurt to stop playing around and strike out on my own, it's time.\nAnd I am not going to say life will never be this good again. I refuse to be one of those people who thinks that life after college is all one long downhill struggle.\nBut I am becoming conscious of how good I have had it here, and I've been trying to take advantage of everything I can during my last week here. Sunning myself in the Arboretum, running through the fountain in front of the Music School library, eating Jiffy Treet, sinking the Biz at Nick's, fighting the crowds at Sports, dancing the night away at the Bluebird.\nAnd, as I (unsuccessfully) tried to convince my friend who was too busy to go camping with me, these are the days to enjoy ourselves. \nMy mom breeds nerds, so I can't in good conscience tell all of you to blow off studying to party it up your last few days here. But I am a strong advocate of study breaks, and what better way to take your mind off biochemistry than a stroll around Kirkwood and the Bloomington square? I don't know many adults who look back on college wishing they had just spent a few more hours studying. But I have heard countless adults whining that they didn't spend as much time with their friends as they wanted, or didn't pursue that crush hard enough to make something happen.\nSo, my parting words of wisdom (take them or leave them as you will) are these: make something happen. Do what you love, spend time with the people you love, and above all love your four (or five, or six…) years here. \nLife will never be like this again.