Your time at university is truly a unique experience that those who didn’t attend college will never understand. With the typical college education spanning four years, the friends and foes you make along the way each bring a new lesson with them. One of the lessons that college taught us is to learn to go with the flow; as someone who is used to everything being controlled and planned out, and don’t let fleeting things your friends do affect you.
State School Salad
Going to such a large state school, Penn State students have the privilege of attending school with tens of thousands of students from every different type of background imaginable and taking no-brainer classes alongside the most difficult courses offered. With each day comes a different life experience, both from people and academics.
While some of the people you meet and classes you take might be deplorable, there is something to learn from those who pique your interest simply because they challenge you. Each new person you meet is just one part of the mixture of cultures and backgrounds at Penn State. Each fluctuating grade is balanced out by easy-A class to ease the tension.
We can keep this in mind when we are having differences with friends, roommates and professors — sometimes it’s just nice to let it go and remember that life is showing us what is has to offer. We might have been brought up differently than our friends, academic and professional progression isn’t always in the palm of our hands, and that’s okay.
Their Problem, Your Action
As you get to know your friends and roommates and get more classes under your belt, you begin to appreciate their quirks, but also notice their repetitive mistakes. Your friend from freshman year always talking to the worst guys, your roommate who is a little too comfortable leaving small messes out for days, the professor who just doesn’t seem to budge on their rigid class policies…these are just some of the acquaintances that add chaos to your life.
It’s your choice how you react to their behavior. If they are constantly causing real problems for themselves or others, you can consider talking to them. However, there’s only so much you can do and how close you are with these people; sometimes it’s nice to just laugh it off and write off their mistakes as just that: mistakes.
You’re Someone’s Lesson
While it’s nice to think that you just watch people mess up and learn from a distance, that would be a pompous assumption. Here’s the truth: you’ve made mistakes just like everyone else. That shouldn’t be something you dread thinking about, though — that means that you’re living life, gaining new experiences and learning lessons along the way just like everyone else.
When you look back on your years in college, you can either look back on a wallflower who watched everyone else add a new “never have I ever” tidbit to their repertoire, or someone who took chances and let themselves experience life for everything it has to offer. It’s your choice to make.
Do you have a friend who helped teach you a lesson at Penn State? Post your story with them on Instagram and tag @VALLEYmag!
