College is about sacrifice. Spending thousands of dollars and, perhaps most importantly, multiple years of your life to receive a piece of paper is a huge sacrifice.
Time is a person’s most valuable asset. How a person spends their time shows what they care about and what they want from life. What you are willing to consistently trade your time for is what you eventually become.
This sacrifice of going to college is done with the idea that the reward at the end will outweigh the sacrifice now. It is an investment, plain and simple. For most, the reward is getting a job and being indispensable; therefore, retaining that position and having a chance to move up to a higher position than you couldn’t without that piece of paper.
If you hate what you are doing at college and feel the sacrifice is more than you are willing to spend, then you are in the wrong spot. Perhaps it is the wrong major, or the wrong college, or maybe it is college all together. Don’t worry, all of those things can be change with relative ease.
College should be tough, if it wasn’t everyone would go. The goal should be finding something that makes the sacrifice worthwhile. If you are spending your time complaining about your major or a class, then change it. That might seem like an oversimplification, but it isn’t. Change what doesn’t make you happy to be here or the sacrifices to which the rewards are no longer outweigh the sacrifice.
College isn’t the only road to success, but it can sure make the road a little easier to navigate. It is a time to figure out what you like and what you don’t, what is worth sacrificing for and what isn’t. Nothing in this world is permanent. Nothing. You have so much time to change your mind and be indecisive. Don’t settle and be miserable, just to get it over with. Things won’t just magically get better after college if you aren’t happy now. It doesn’t do you or the people around you any good to “just push through.”
I was this way for a long time, then I realized it was my job to change things and get out of my own way. No one was forcing me to do anything, it was my responsibility to be happy. I got rid of everything that wasn’t contributing to my immediate happiness or things that wouldn’t yield a greater amount of happiness in the end.
Recently, I have been around people who are consumed with negativity and it is contagious. You shouldn’t let someone else’s unhappiness affect your happiness, but it is hard not to.
Their negativity is driven by either their unwillingness to see the end result of their current sacrifice is or an inability recognize how lucky they are to be in a position where their current sacrifices will lead to endless possibilities in the end.
Things will go wrong, that is a given. Murphy’s Law, right? Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. This is part of the learning process and it happens to everyone. Literally, every person ever. It is the perfect opportunity to grow and learn. To continue being cliche, you learn more from a loss than a win.
Being upset when things go wrong is fine. You should be upset, but you shouldn’t miss an opportunity to learn from it and make the next attempt better. Stack all the failed attempts on each other and eventually whatever you are trying to complete will get better and easier.
Continuously moving forward should be the ultimate goal and that cannot be accomplished living in the past and being upset with things beyond your control. When things go wrong, be upset, then move on. Do not let it continue to be a part of you. It becomes poison and will eat you from the inside out. This applies to people as well as events.
Get rid of the things in your life that bring you down, the things that make you question the sacrifices you are currently making for a better tomorrow. These things are not only affecting you, but also those around you.
Be happy with your decisions, the good and the bad. Be the person you want to be and get rid of those around you that do not move you forward. Saying goodbye is hard, but it is worth it.
Find something worth sacrificing for and commit fully to it.