For many college students, our current state of being lies in many places other than the present. We wish we could go back to our earlier years of education, or we wish we were graduated and without the stress of school. However, this kind of thinking negatively impacts our current stage in life.
So, we must focus on living more and wishing less.
It’s important to live in the present because we cannot change the past and do not yet know the future. The present is the only thing we can control.
As students, we often get hung up on past exams, wishing we would have done better, but what we really should be doing is living in the present and working to become better for our future. Living in the here and now is how we set ourselves up for success. Instead of hoping to have a great college experience, we need to go out and make it happen.
Living means being present in our lives, not spending our time wishing they were different. As college students, we’re constantly exposed to social media, which creates a longing to be anywhere but in our current situations.
There are already enough negatives impacting the mental health of college students, so it’s important for us not to add to this issue by comparing our lives to those on social media. As much as we sometimes wish we were anywhere but college, we must realize the great privilege it is to be here.
If we think about it, our current position as students is something people in other places wish to have. For many of these people, college is nothing more than a dream and will never become their reality. Therefore, we must not take our opportunity to live the college lifestyle for granted.
Sometimes I wish I was the 18-year-old social media influencer on my TikTok feed who just moved into her luxury New York City apartment. When I look at the comment section on her videos, it seems as though everyone else feels that way too, but I cannot let her life make me any less appreciative of mine.
I’m a junior at UNK majoring in political science and journalism. That’s my here and now, and I must accept it. When we get too caught up in the lives of others, it’s important to ground ourselves and come back to real life.
College should be about living in the present, specifically your present.
When I say to live and not wish, I don’t mean you can’t have dreams or goals. I mean that if wishing is all we do, we will never be able to make something out of our present situations that allows us to accomplish our goals.
So, join a sorority or a fraternity, get involved in an intramural sport or become part of one of the many organizations here on campus. We owe it to ourselves as busy college students to be present in our own lives, because someday we’ll look back at our days in college and wish we could relive them, so why not live them now?
