Embracing the Beauty of Pre-Adulthood ⋆ College Magazine

I sat in total silence while laying in bed, listening to the new Joyce Manor record I bought. As the record cracked to life and filled the room with guitar riffs, I decided to get real philosophical, as we all tend to do at least three times a day. I questioned the small things like, “Why do I go to class?” to the broader, “What is my purpose in this crazy thing we call life?” As the first side of the record died out, I reached a question that was worth answering: “What the hell am I doing right now?”

Obviously, I was laying silently in bed like a real weirdo. But really, what am I doing with my life? I tend to write about making the best of what life gives you and sticking it to the man. Yet here I sat, acting like 59-year-old on the brink of retirement. I jumped out of bed in a great sweat, and immediately drove over to my friend’s place just to escape the monotony of doing nothing. I have the whole world at my fingertips.

On the doorstep to adulthood, college blesses us with the ability to live like adults and kids simultaneously. We drive on our own, live on our own, wash our own clothes and in the same breath we can go wherever we want, do whatever we want and, well, not wash our clothes regularly. A minute unused in college ends up being a minute wasted. Frankly, life will never be better than right now. Remember freshman year when you threw a bucket of ice water on Johnny while he showered? Of course you do. Nothing will ever surmount to the great times spent while walking the halls of your alma matter.

Funny, though. We call ourselves adults, yet realistically we wouldn’t know what actual adulthood looked like if it hit us in the face. The closest we come to acting like real adults is when you go to the grocery store and get excited at the BOGO deals.

We’re glorified kids, a pseudo-adult if you will, and that’s ok. Nobody expects us be ready for the real world. Hell, less than five years ago we had to ask permission to use the bathroom. Real adults worry about worldly issues like the civil unrest in eastern Europe or what Donald Trump might say next. We play Cards Against Humanity and get annoyed when we pick up a shitty card. Frankly, we don’t know how lucky we’ve got it.

We’re not really kids, but we’re not really adults. What now? Crack open a beer, share stories with your buddies and enjoy every waking moment as a pre-adult for as long as you possibly can. When we get to the ripe age of 130 (S/O to the potential medical advancements around year 2053) we’ll look back and shed a tear reminiscing about football games, or your 21^stbirthday surrounded by your closest friends.

So what if the person you matched with on Tinder didn’t message you after you Super Liked them? So what if your team lost that football game? All these things build you into a well-rounded adult; when the time comes and you’ll walk across the stage to grab your ticket into adulthood ready for the world. Andy from The Office once said, “I wish there was a way to know you were in the good ole’ days before you were in them.” Newsflash: We’re in them. Make the most out of the rest of your days as a college student.