Have you ever accepted a date because you were hungry and positive that you’d get a free meal? Or had iced coffee for lunch? What about re-wearing clothes because laundry just adds up? I have done all of these, and I can bet 95% of other college kids have, too. I almost think the term “college student” should be considered a superpower. I mean, you’re trying to survive without spending money or using resources. My mom calls this “strong-willed,” and I call it the “extreme ramen diet.” Honestly though, there’s something beautiful about having thousands of broke 18 to 24-year-olds all in the same facility. We all understand the struggle. We may not be able to lend you a dollar, but we’ll lend you a helping hand, a shoulder to cry on, and advice. It makes the relationships you formed even more special, because none of us can do this by ourselves. I understand now why they call it the “college experience.” Sure, the end goal is to earn a degree and hopefully get the dream job we look forward to going to everyday, but I don’t think “experience” has anything to do with studying and due dates. It’s more about understanding others and ourselves.
However, besides the back-crushing debt, starving, and stress, one common college con reigns supreme: constant, never-ending tiredness. I mean, we could catch up on sleep over the weekend, but then we would be diagnosed with a severe case of FOMO as the rest of our fellow classmates go into the night with the immense possibility of getting a video so shocking, it might even be featured on lopes barstool. We can’t have that, so we pack on that concealer to hide our sunken bags and head out, hopping into the beds of trucks because no one wants to pay for a Lyft and apparently that’s legal in Arizona. In all seriousness, it takes a special breed to juggle school, work, clubs/extracurriculars, and a social life all while getting an average of 4 hours of sleep each night.
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College, I have seen, is a lot of trial and error. It is a growth period that will change the way we go out into the rest of society. We have to take our independence and make something of it, because at the end of the day, we are all accountable for ourselves. My Christian Worldview teacher said every Monday after an eventful weekend, “If we don’t make mistakes, how will we learn from them?” That’s why I think everyone should know what it is like to be a broke college kid, because we are not afraid to make mistakes and take risks. And people that take risks, will and do change the world. So for now I will keep treating chips and queso as a meal because I know when the college experience is over, and we slowly start creating a stable life for ourselves and continue to go for our aspirations; I believe we will all miss the days where our bellies, though not full, were filled with laughter.