The Best Four Years of Your Life?

The ubiquitous college label and why I don't like it.

Originally published on May 1, 2017

One of my newer pet peeves is when a person, usually someone a generation or two above me, will say something like, “Enjoy college! They’re the best years of your life!” I remember colleges saying things like that to me when I was looking around, trying to decide where to go. “Come [here] for the best 4 years of your life!” Now that I am halfway done with college, I am trying to figure out why people keep saying that. I’ve enjoyed my time here, but it’s not mind-blowing amazing. It’s fun and I love it, but why is there a pressure to make the most out of my college years?

It’s one of those tropes you see a lot in popular media, where the popular people in high school “peak” in high school and are less than successful when our shy, nerdy protagonist catches up with them years later. That’s just it, then. Perhaps the people who keep pushing this narrative are the ones who have fallen victim to a monotonous post-college lifestyle, and they are trying to make sure “us kids” do better than they did.

I can see where they are coming from. College, for the most part, will be the last time you are in a learning environment on an academic schedule and enough freedom to do what you want some days, provided you don’t have schoolwork to do. For me anyway, it’s the last few years of my parents’ financial support, though perhaps not the last years of living at home.

Life is easier in college. I’ll give you that. It’s nice when you have a job lined up for the summer and enough free time to squeeze in a few hours of work here or there and try to keep your grades up and learn about things you love and want to study. Your full-time job is to be a student, and most people expect that to be where your priorities are. You’ve been a student for fifteen years, so you’re good at it.

Even still, many college students are working when they are off. Some have families to support, and not all can afford to go on a fancy spring break. College is not as carefree as, say, high school, for some people.

I guess the reason my gut reaction is negativity when faced with the statement “the best years of your life” is I’m only twenty. I have so much life ahead of me, and the label makes it seem like it’s all downhill from here. I am optimistic about my future (though I may not always express that most days). I hope I will find a job I love with people I enjoy collaborating with. I want to continue to grow and learn, but instead get paid for it.

This article doesn’t mean I don’t love college. I really do, and I’m so glad I am where I am with the programs I am in. I just don’t think colleges and adults should be pushing the agenda of making the most of your college years when there’s so much after college to look forward to.