Let's Chat: College is freaking hard. I get it!!
On May 7, 2017 I ended a six year love hate relationship with my college career. I started college (not, "I went back to school" because I never went to college to begin with.) when my youngest of six children went to kindergarten. I was 40 years old. I thought.... "this will be easy...I got this" I couldn't have been further from "getting it" than I was at that particular moment.
College is full of challenges. It taught me more than just my content for my major area. Yes, I at 40 years old learned life lessons and how the average college kid struggles daily with deadlines, papers, speeches, lab reports, accounting projects, research madness, having to read a book and starting it the day before or the day of the paper on it being due. I learned that much like my high school days a long time ago when dinosaurs roamed the earth, the food in the cafeteria sucked. I also learned that I could navigate this college thing no matter how clumsily, and that one day eventually in what seemed like a very distant future, this would come to an end.
Along the way I met some GREAT friends. Friends that I can't imagine my life without now. I also met amazing professors and some not so amazing professors (I agree with you....there are some people who should just not be educators) I stuck out the bad professors, cussing and hissing the entire way. I wanted to rip my hair out EVERY.SINGLE.WEEK.OF.FINALS. The stress of having to know all of the information I had just spent 14 weeks cramming into my head in an attempt to make it one step closer to that stage and being handed that piece of paper was almost unbearable. The late night cram sessions shoving anything with sugar in it into my mouth in an attempt to stay awake and process more information into my brain was very real. Contemplating how to invent a real coffee IV entered my mind on 23,000 different occasions and I'm sure I actually surpassed that number in actual cups of coffee I drank. I would walk the halls and see the good professors noticing my eye bags and lack of enthusiasm for the day of accounting notes, economics slides and management presentations, and listen as they would say, "keep going....you are almost done." Thinking the whole time, "shut.up.your.mouth.right.now.I.need.sleep" I would quietly contemplate how to legally induce myself into a coma that would provide me with enough rest to endure the endless ranting of a certain student from a South American country that seemed to seek out and find every class I would take and plant herself in a seat very close to me. ***disclaimer*** there are now certain South American countries I NEVER want to visit because of this classmate.... but that's another story for another day.
Your parents probably say to you, "what are you so tired for? All you do is go to school all day." Um.......... Parents of America............. shut up YOUR mouths right now and never say that to your college kid again!! You probably get done with school and do some sort of job and when you are done with that you probably come home and get started on some of the MOUNDS of homework that you have for your 32 classes...... most of which require a 15 page double spaced with footnotes and a bibliography paper. This junk is NO JOKE. You guys are hanging on by your fingernails for a 4 (sometimes more as in my six year case) year roller coaster ride of emotions and fatigue while doing shots of espresso and mastering the art of looking awake while actually catching some zzz's in your 8 a.m. monotone professor's class.
I feel you. I get you. I understand you. I am one with you. You are my people.
Let me tell you all, each and every one of you.... I don't care your age or your shoe size or the color of your hair........... You guys are navigating this junk like a rock star and don't ever let your parents or those adult like beings that think they have it all figured out make you think other wise. You keep walking the good walk. You carry on with your bad selves. I got y'alls backs yo.... (college lingo this mom of six picked up along the way) I am here to proclaim loud proud and to all the land that you guys are big hairy awesome amazing beasts.
And I promise......... no matter what anybody says........... at the end of your journey, that walk across that stage is going to be one of the single greatest moments of your ENTIRE life. Because you did this. YOU. Not your parents, not your friends, not your children, spouse, significant other.......... YOU........ you did this and you rocked that junk. Like the beast that you are. Until then............ keep walking the good walk. If you need the patent ideas for the coffee IV I am happy to forward them over, I was never unbusy enough to ever get it going but you are all welcome to it. While you are rocking it, remember to have fun. Go places. Explore them, and yourself. Come to understand who you are an why you want the things you want. Figure out how you can better help people and yourself. Understand compassion and empathy and figure out how to apply them in the life you are living. Go out there and change the world to the place you want it to be. I'll be standing on the sidelines cheering you on.
Because COLLEGE AIN'T NO JOKE YO.
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