"Every time you say yes to something, you're saying no to something else."
When I first came to college, my older brother would tell this to me every time we talked. He warned, do everything you want, just don't do to much...I didn't listen.
I've become addicted to being busy, to having new experiences, and making new friends. However, when one decides to take this road in life, it is very easy to get your priorities mixed up. I know I did.
Last week, there was an alcohol education session and the speaker asked one simple question at the beginning and the end of the program--Why are you here?
Why are we here? What are we doing? Why are we doing it? I'm not sitting here trying to ponder the meaning of life, but to take a minute to seriously ask myself, what do I want out of life? Five years from now, ten years from now, what do I want my life to look like? More importantly, how can I get there, and what habits do I need to form or break to get there?
Is my college experience going to be about the parties I went to? Or the abundance of organizations I joined? Is it going to be about the outfits I rocked? Is it going to be about the grades I got? The choices I made? The times I had to decide which organization was more important?
College is about finding yourself, but at the same time, you are supposed to be shaping the person you want to be for the rest of your life. A professor told my brother when he was in college that the habits he developed there would be with him for the rest of his life.
I'm not saying that we can't be silly, or go out with our friends, or mess up every now and again. I'm saying, how can we help ourselves become the people we were meant to be? How can we go from being the people we are now to the people we want to be?
I have a great life. I work hard, but I also take some time to realize, some time for myself.
If you can create and keep a balance, your life will be much different, much better. College isn't just about creating a great resume, but becoming a well-rounded person. Do you want to write? To paint? To travel? To workout? Maybe you want to be funnier, or you want to learn piano. Now is the time to do that.
There's a million cliches people use about the importance of seizing the day and living life to the fullest, but you have to take a minute to ask yourself, "what do I want? Why am I here?"
To take full advantage of life, you have to give yourself to something, and you can't give yourself to everything. It becomes deeper than "what do I want," and instead becomes, "what do I want more."
You may have to lose sleep, make difficult compromises, and learn some things the hard ways, but sometimes that's the only way to realize what we really love and what we just love the idea of.
