College. A word that means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. For some, college is the "nights they will never forget". For others, it is the smell of textbooks and coffee. College for me has been nothing I expected, but everything I needed.
I have spent most of my time in college, searching for some form of normal or pursuing what I believed was the “typical college experience” … (spoiler alert!) it does not exist. Stop searching for it! It is an exhausting dead-end. Believe me, I know from experience.
My college experience began at a small four-year private university where I was double majoring in education and math. I am ending my college experience at a giant public four-year university with a degree in industrial engineering and an emphasis in entrepreneurship. I would say my experience has changed just slightly over the years, and that it has been everything but normal.
One of the many blessings I have had in college is my friends. I have an eclectic friend group to say the least. It consists of all majors, all body types, all hair colors, and all different experiences. No matter how similar our experiences can seem on paper, they are entirely different. For instance, take my two close friends in my major. We are all female, all in Greek life, all have great GPA’s, and all have nearly identical resumes and not just because we made them together. Yet, we all have different experiences from college. One will undoubtedly go into an engineering industry, one will most likely become a lawyer, and myself, well anything but industry or law school.
We have all faced different challenges and growth opportunities. Some of my friends have had really dark moments and some their greatest joys have been in college. Personally, I have had my greatest lessons in college. I have learned resilience, determination, patience, responsibility, my potential, and a lot of equations. I never expected to be where I am in college. I never thought I would transfer, be an engineer, pursue a career, the list goes on and on; yet, every experience I have had has taught me something that I needed to learn.
Being able to see all of my friends' different experiences has shown me I do not need to chase a “normal experience”. The best experience I can have in college is to find my strengths, my passions, my goals, and chase those. That is when college becomes meaningful, purposeful, and better than you could ever expect.
