Experience equals a better future

I recently interviewed for an internship. The editor-in-chief had to choose between me, a freshman at IU who writes opinion columns, and a junior at the University of Missouri, who reported stories, fact-checked and even had experience in publishing. Guess who got the internship?\nIf my life were a movie and I was the heroine, then my persistence would have paid off, and I would have received the internship instead of the guy with more experience. But that's just not realistic. Frankly, I was surprised the editor-in-chief kept me in the running that long for the internship. I took this to mean that I had relatively good writing skills and seemed qualified but I just couldn't compare to someone else who has lived a little longer than I have, therefore giving him more time to get more experience.\nI believe that everyone would agree that experience is an important thing for a person to have, and not just job training experience. For example, experience in relationships is very important. How is a person supposed to know what qualities to look for in a spouse if she doesn't look around, date around, and find out what qualities she is attracted to the most? She's got to spend time with different characters to find out. And bad experiences in relationships can be constructive, too. Partners who cheat, lie, mistreat you, have no time for you, don't support you, or act indifferent towards you give you experience in being disrespected or mistreated. And you can let that experience affect you in many ways. You can get depressed because someone broke your heart. You can get mad because someone led you on and then rejected you. You can realize that even though your partner hurt you, you can do better, because you don't deserve to be treated with no respect. You can become stronger and more accepting that all relationships are not perfect after some have failed. Every bad experience is needed to appreciate all the good in life. And of course there's the opposite; if you took someone for granted, or even just grew apart from someone, whatever the outcome of that relationship, by having that experience, you can prevent what went wrong next time. Or figure out better ways to use someone for a longer period of time. \nRelationships are only one of the many different experiences students have in college. And college is an experience all its own. College promises many things that many kids can't experience when living at home. Independence. The freedom to eat whenever you want, study whenever you feel the need, stay out until you want to, and maybe sometimes you won't come home. You learn how to deal with people who are different than you are. You can see what being a business major entails, versus being a SPEA major. You find out what exactly you want to do for the rest of your life. \nYou take what you get from whatever you experience and keep that in your head. Experience gets us through life, because all life is is experiences. So whether it be for a job interview or for deciding what you'd like to major in, get as much experience as you can. It'll help you in the long run.