By Alyssa Gautieri
Managing Editor
As I was lying beside my roommate, talking about our favorite television comedies, I received a Snapchat from a fellow editor. Suddenly, a thought popped into my head and I sat up abruptly. It was my week to write the editorial… and it was due, well yesterday. For a moment, I panicked. Then I thought, it’s OK. I can still get it done.
But what would I write it about? I thought about how unlike me it was to have completely forgotten about my editorial — especially considering I was the one who made the schedule in the first place! I started thinking aloud about how messy my life’s been lately, and my roommate said, “join the club.”
I laughed and decided something — college is the epitome of messiness and confusion. Figuring out who you are and who you want to be can be, to say the least, strange and unnerving. From deciding on a major, creating new friendships to navigating romantic relationships, I think college is the time to embrace the confusion.
During this time, we are all expected to make life-altering decisions, and I don’t think we are reminded often enough just how terrifying it is.
Everyone is always saying, “college will be the best time of your life,” but let’s face it, it is basically like going through life without wearing your glasses, straining your eyes to try to see what direction you’re headed.
Then, while we try to get it all together, we have to endure constant, repetitive questions from family members, and family friends whose names we can’t even remember. After the most obvious question — what’s your major again? — the most common among them is what are you planning on doing after graduation?
If you’re anything like me, you typically reply with a eye roll and unenthusiastic “I’m not exactly sure yet.”
And, you know what? I think that is OK.
Although this is my last semester at the College, I’m not afraid to admit that I still don’t have it all figured out. Of course I have ideas about what I’d like to do and who I’d like to be, but by no definition do I have my life entirely together.
I’ve learned to embrace the fact that my life can be messy, because I think that now is the time to not have it all figured out. If not now, then when?
When else will we be able switch majors four times before being confident? When else will we be able to change our future career path without having the stress of paying bills or caring for a family? When else will we be able to sit in bed for hours on a Wednesday afternoon? When else can I totally forgot about an assignment, then somehow complete it by 2 a.m.?
The answer is never.
I’ve heard so many of my peers joke about how their lives are confusing and messy, but I’ve come to realize that, during college, we are honestly all in that same boat. It can be easy to feel angry, or pity ourselves, for poor decisions, mediocre grades or failed relationships, but college confusion is completely natural.
While I am definitely more confident in my life choices — and less embarrassed of my mistakes — than I was freshman year, I still advise any student I meet to not worry if they feel as if they don’t have it all figured out. And while I’m not sure life will ever lack confusion altogether, college is definitely the time to accept the fact that none of have any idea what we are doing.
