Applying the phrase “best years of your life” to college is complicated due to its subjectivity. Firstly, what I consider to be my ideal life may be someone’s nightmare, and secondly, everyone’s college years are vastly different. Speaking generally about how college translates to the best years of everyone’s lives is difficult, but I still believe this to be true in one sense: everything becomes what you make of it and college is a great playground for experimentation. Whether this be with new interests, friends, personality traits or goals, college forces you to confront that you finally need to make something of yourself. You are no longer a high school student living under your parents’ roof; you must accept that you are now an individual making a new start for yourself. The inevitable journey of self discovery, paired with the uniqueness of every individual’s experience, is what I believe puts college years up for consideration as “the best years of your life.”
With college comes more intrinsic motivation, incentive that comes from within: “Intrinsic motivation is active in a student who is personally interested in exploring the material at hand because of their own curiosity and desire. Students who are intrinsically motivated assign value to doing the task itself, not to a particular outcome.” This naturally helps students to learn more about themselves, as what they choose to do with what’s given to them is indicative of who they are becoming.
Students in college gain perspectives that they may not have even known existed. I attribute this experience to two components: college classes and meeting new people. I think I learned more about the world through my core curriculum first semester classes than I did in my four years of high school. This is not because I didn’t learn anything in high school but because of the type of information that was taught. College classes enabled discussions about more “stigmatized” material and conversing about uncomfortable topics was encouraged.
I think that I experienced a lot of cognitive dissonance, or contradicting views, in high school, mainly due to the fact that I didn’t know exactly who I was or what I wanted. I was in a constant state of mental clashing and coming to college felt like a slow process of clarity for me.
On whether she felt more confident coming to college as opposed to high school, Ilze Ulyanov, FCRH ‘28 answered, “Yes. I think [college] is allowing me to find who I am and fine tune the better parts of me.” I loved her use of the phrase “fine tune.” It gives the hopeful notion that you will never stop being able to become a better version of yourself, which is such a sweet sentiment.
College also allows for meeting people from unique backgrounds, offering new perspectives constantly. This meeting of new people helps individuals realize what types of people they genuinely get along with, as the options are vast, allowing for more options in friendships, and therefore self-discovery. College is the perfect time for students to discover these new friendships and perspectives and utilize them in forming their own views about themselves, the world and the people around them.
Some students feel as if they’re “wasting their time” in college. Surprisingly, this is a common stressor. But it’s also nice to know that no one is ever alone in this feeling. “I do worry about [wasting time] a lot, but you only experience college once,”Anna Jansics, GSB ‘28, stated. “Live it up while you can, but also keep your future in the back of your mind. Just make sure to stay on top of schoolwork and actively stay engaged with things that will benefit you in your future — don’t make it your whole life in college.”
Grappling with college is difficult, but the fact that no one is ever alone in what they’re feeling contributes to college being the “best years of your life.” I think that the circumstance of struggling alone but together is beautiful and only amplifies a sense of community and students’ awareness of this is impressive.
Fordham is great at cultivating well-rounded students. The average Fordham student has an immense amount of agency, kindness and motivation to strive for the best. Close connections with faculty are also not difficult to achieve given the class sizes, and most professors that I’ve had have been intriguing, intellectual and considerate individuals. The easy access to community here at Fordham makes students thrive. Various clubs, organizations, sports and even study groups are right at the fingertips of each student. What the student decides to join is up to them entirely, but there is never a right or wrong way to go.
This goes back to my point about the distinctiveness of every individual’s experience. Everyone being together but on their own journeys is something special. The years in college are like nothing else, almost as if they’re a four year summer camp away from real life. The uniqueness of the “college experience,” no matter what it may be, turns it into “the best years of your life.”
Yulia Uvarova, FCRH ’28, is an economics major from New Canaan, Connecticut.
