College can, and should be, one of those defining epochs of your life — a time where you transition from adolescence into adulthood, acquire the skills and qualifications that catapult you into the working world, and meet all kinds of people from all kinds of places.
College is a time for self-discovery and perhaps more than that, a time for self-creation and reinvention. All of this means that the way time is spent at college matters quite significantly.
Of course, there’s all the usual stuff you’d expect as part of the college experience, but that’s by no means all that college life has to offer.
If you’re a student about to start college, or even if you’ve already been to college for some time but are still studying, here are a few things you should consider doing during your college years.
Travel, if you get the chance
Travel is one of the great human experiences, and it exposes us to new vistas, new experiences, new ways of seeing the world, and new opportunities, all in one.
College often brings with it various opportunities for travel, including student exchange programs, college trips sponsored or organized by different student societies, or even just groups of friends making the decision to band together and visit a new state, or country together, in order to have a good time.
There are some particular benefits of travelling when you’re young and at College. For one thing, you aren’t likely to have too many responsibilities holding you back at this period in your life. Likely you don’t have a full-time job, a family to take care of, or mortgage payments to make.
For another thing, you are at an age, and likely in a social context, where all kinds of exciting and memorable events are likely to happen.
Finally, travel can help to expand your horizons at the beginning of your adult life, and help to refine some of your perspectives on life.
Begin exploring hobbies in earnest
One great thing about pretty much all Universities, is that they have a wide variety of student societies and hobby groups on offer.
This means that your time as a student provides a rare and excellent opportunity for you to begin exploring various hobbies in earnest, whether that means getting involved in fencing, or martial arts, or trying your hand at chess, archery, or life-drawing.
Begin exploring any hobbies that seem interesting to you, and they might blossom into fulfilling and rewarding lifelong passions.
Get out of your room, and off your computer, and meet people
Going to college in the digital age means that it’s now possible to spend a huge proportion of your free time not at classes or at parties, sitting in your room, in your pajamas, surfing the web, watching Netflix, playing video games, and just generally not socializing.
This is a pretty tragic state of affairs, considering that college is one of the best and easiest avenues you’re ever likely to experience, for meeting new people. Not to mention learning something.
So, take advantage of that fact. Turn off the computer — and maybe use some apps to stop yourself surfing the web obsessively — get out, do things, and meet people.
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