Throughout my college years I had always felt like I was missing something in my life. The first yea

Throughout my college years I had always felt like I was missing something in my life. The first year of collage started with my extremely optimistic expectations because of the stories I had heard in my high school years. Once I realized those stories weren’t the case here and I wouldn’t have somewhat of a wild collage life here, I was disappointed. Now that I think about it, my obsession about filling my collage years with extreme, fun, adventurous moments might have been the reason I was so unsatisfied with what I really had.

It was my second year and I still hadn’t had any experience that made me feel excited, scared or anything close to that. My college life was as dull as it could be, that was until I met someone in my science class. Devin and I had never spoken before because I wasn’t exactly a social butterfly back then, but our teacher assigned us a group project so that’s how we met. Devin was a girl with such a unique personality that you couldn’t help but spend time with her. We luckily stayed in touch after our project was over, so I got to know her better. Where I’m going at with this is that out of her many interests I was really drawn into one. She loved the wild, so she occasionally went to forests to have walks or sometimes even camp. About the end of our second year we had finally decided to go camping, Devin wanted to go somewhere she has never been to before to make it more exciting so after an hour long trip we found a large forest with areas to camp and have walks.

Long story short Devin had an idea to leave the main trail and go off somewhere on our own and the plan was to find a camping area eventually. After walking for two hours straight I was sure we were lost. I asked Devin what to do and she said she didn’t know either so that got me so scared and paranoid that every voice I heard sounded like a danger to me. I was so on edge the whole time that the moment I had heard a weird groaning, I thought it was a bear and started crying. That’s when Devin told me she knew where we were for the last hour and just made me go around a camping area to see how long I could stay calm. She said maybe that’d help me see how wrong I was about believing that I needed to have scary adventures to enjoy my collage life.

That had been the most surprising and eye opening thing that had ever happened to me, and probably ever would.

Works Cited

1. Clark, S. (2016). The college experience. In M. J. Furlong, & R. A. Smith (Eds.), Routledge Handbook of Youth and Young Adulthood (pp. 91-98). Routledge.
2. Goudreau, J. (2016, August 17). How to make the most of your college experience, according to experts. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/jennifercohen/2016/08/17/how-to-make-the-most-of-your-college-experience-according-to-experts/?sh=694287a26f2e
3. Kamenetz, A. (2010). DIY U: Edupunks, edupreneurs, and the coming transformation of higher education. Chelsea Green Publishing.
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6. National Survey of Student Engagement. (2021). Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research. https://nsse.indiana.edu/
7. Pascarella, E. T., & Terenzini, P. T. (2005). How college affects students: A third decade of research (Vol. 2). Jossey-Bass.
8. Pinto, L. D., & Ramalho, N. (2020). College student development theory: A critical review of its evolution, current status, and future directions. Journal of College Student Development, 61(1), 1-18.
9. Schreiner, L. A., Noel, P., Anderson, E. D., & Cantwell, L. (2011). The impact of engagement on student success. National Survey of Student Engagement.
10. Tinto, V. (1993). Leaving college: Rethinking the causes and cures of student attrition. University of Chicago Press.

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