My "Cute" College Experience

As the final countdown to graduation begins I find myself questioning whether I truly made the most out of my college experience. When thinking back on the last four years with my teammates and close friends at LMU, we sometimes regret never getting around to exploring as much of LA as we’d hoped to, but feel confident that our years at LMU were still well spent. But it’s as soon as I get together with my friends from high school that I suddenly feel like I did college all wrong.

At least within the last three years, not too much has changed in my life regarding academics, relationships, and athletics. Typically, people strive to have the balance in their lives that I feel I have in mine, but when I sit there listening to my friends’ crazy stories, I question whether the balance in my life came to soon— because my life just doesn’t compare. I’ve found myself silently sitting through conversations that sound something like this:

           

Oh my god, you guys, I’ve never been so amped…I definitely couldn’t have lasted without all that cocaine and Adderall.

           

Wait, you’ve never tried cocaine?

           

You guys, I accidentally cheated on my boyfriend again.

           

At least you have a boyfriend…I’ve had sex with like 5 guys in the last 2 weeks.

            What about you, Kristen?

  Umm, I’ve never tried cocaine… or Adderall, and I still have the same boyfriend... and I    haven’t accidentally or intentionally cheated on him.   

Aw, you guys are cute.

Did I miss something here? Am I supposed to be doing drugs and unhappy with stable relationships? Well, I don’t, and I’m not. But comparing lifestyles with them makes me feel like I should be. However, after thinking back on my apparently “cute” college experience, I have to hand it to myself for not falling victim to the habits that surrounded me. Maybe it was the threatened drug tests that the athletic department issued periodically, maybe I just didn’t have the money, maybe I didn’t want to had I even been “allowed.” Regardless, the more I think it through, the more I realize it’s really not important. I did what I came to LMU to do—swim Division 1, have a good time, and graduate.

In the end, we all hit a point when we’re lost and confused about where our post-college lives will take us, so why does it matter how we get there?

Hint: It doesn’t.

Kristen Brennand