Why are you here? Why did you leave high school and go to college? Why not get a job instead?

If your answer is something along the lines of, “I need to get a degree,” you may want to take the time to dig a little deeper. Degrees can only do so much to shape the rest of your life.

Thankfully, college involves a lot more than that. From all the little details you hate (or will hate) about this four (or five, six or seven) year period of your life to the best nights out you’ll ever remember, college is chock full of experiences that will shape the rest of your life. You may be here for the degree, but that will most likely be the least important thing you take away when you graduate.

We’re not encouraging you to give up and drop out, unless of course deep down you wish you’d gone to culinary school or spent a year in Europe – if so, please go! You’ll be glad you did. We just want to point out that college isn’t just a few years of something to get out of the way. It’s a few years of growth and development in all areas, even ones you never thought of.

First, the bad stuff.

Just about all of us hate early morning classes because they happen so, well, early. But early is how the rest of the world operates. Your first job out of college will most likely start early. Adjusting your sleep patterns to that after a few years of sleeping until noon will not be easy – especially if your job (and livelihood!) is on the line.

Projects and papers fall into the same vein. They’re a pain to do, and you have or will have to complete one or two projects that seem utterly pointless. The point is, you researched, analyzed and organized on a deadline. Even if the paper teaches you nothing at all, the practice more than makes up for it. After college, “late” won’t mean you fail – it’ll mean you’re fired.

Worse still are the professors that don’t care about you, the class they teach or whether anyone actually passes. This seems to be an area where students are quick to judge and get angry, but think about the people you will encounter in the future. Almost none of them are going to care about your success or failure. Some will even try to screw you over. College seems like a great time to get used to it and learn to deal with it. Self-accountability can’t be stressed enough.

What you have to remember is that you aren’t necessarily getting out of bed and doing “pointless” projects for yourself. You are doing these things for everyone you will ever help with your degree. By coming to college, you have either consciously or unconsciously made a decision to pursue higher education that will allow you to, in some way, improve the quality of life for somebody else.

Whether you are studying engineering, humanities, natural sciences, design, business or agriculture – some day you will help somebody out with the degree that you are earning. With that in mind, an 8 a.m. class is an act of self-sacrifice. By learning to put your obligations now in front of your own personal desires, you are learning how to function in the “real world” ahead and put obligations to others before your own satisfaction. Doing that “pointless” project prepares you to work on things that may seem unrelated and daunting but are necessary for the completion of a bigger goal.

But there are so many good things about the college experience too.

College, especially a university the size of N.C. State, offers students the chance to meet hundreds of people who see the world in a way you may never have considered. Whether you hate the guy with the opposite political view from you or adore the exchange student with a unique opinion of American culture, new people can and should open your eyes to the vast differences of belief that you will encounter. Having just an inkling or understanding about the religious beliefs of your brand new Hare Krishna-devoted boss or mother-in-law could affect your health and happiness later on.

Even though your parents told you not to party too hard during your years at school, the time you spend exploring the college social scene may help you understand how to best handle yourself during overly-intoxicated business dinners and family weddings you’ll encounter later in life. If you drink, you’ll soon learn how much you can drink before turning into a blithering fool – always a good thing to know before your first office Christmas party, and if you don’t, you’ll learn how to deal with the blithering fools who do it too much! If you prefer to be more constructive with your leisure time, learning a new “officey” type of hobby (golf, wine tasting, etc) could ease the transition into social life in the working world.

There are a lot more good things about college that are obvious – the friends you will make, the things you’ll learn, the places you’ll go. The point that we are trying to make is that the good in college is so enjoyable that sometimes when the unenjoyable comes along college students are standing at the ready, waiting to become jaded. Always be ready to talk junk about some professor in the Brickyard.

All in all, you’ll enjoy your college experience a lot more if you learn to just look at the world around you as positive. These four-plus years are meant to train you to be a global citizen, not just another person with a degree.

Think about your future and how the present shapes it every day. Take in every college experience and use it to develop until you find yourself ready to graduate.

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