April 20, 2022
Editor: Carina Trama
Artist: Yuri Chen
A couple months ago, I read an article in Vogue titled “I Didn’t Realize How Much I Missed Getting Ready With Friends.” It discussed the camaraderie and excitement of preparing for a night out with your best friends: swapping clothes because you have just nothing to wear, taking pictures, and checking to make sure your eyeliner wings are even. Reading about the author’s nostalgia for getting ready with her friends, I realized how lucky I am to live in a sorority house with 60 girls. However, the realization hit me that this is a luxury I’ll only be able to enjoy for two more years. Time is fleeting, and soon getting ready with my friends won’t be a regular occurrence, but rather a scarce glimpse back into my college years—enter my mid-college crisis.
Though calling this a crisis might be a little melodramatic, it has made me take a moment to be present and to appreciate the aspects of my daily life that I take for granted. I’ve tried to be grateful for the little things that come with being in college—the things that are unique to this period of my life. This article is not only a love letter to my college days, but to Michigan in particular. Everything from the energy on a game day, to the first warm day of spring when the whole school collectively decides to skip class to lay out in the sun, to the Harry Potter-esque law library that somehow makes me smarter just by studying there— the things I know I’ll be missing in two years.
Besides the limited responsibilities and unlimited independence of being a college student, these four years are one of the few times where you have access to this many resources and the opportunity to learn almost anything you want. Perhaps you want to take a class on The Rhetoric of Yik Yak, or spend a semester studying in virtually any country of your choice.
College is the time to figure yourself out: who you are as a person, what you want to do with your life, what you’re passionate about. It’s the one time in your life when you can unapologetically make mistakes while having the freedom to do so. You’re allowed to take a class in every subject if that’s what it takes for you to find the topic that you’re truly interested in. You can meet new people from all over, each interaction shaping you into who you are. Embrace every last moment of your golden years (especially at Michigan of all places).