Two weeks ago, I realized just how lucky I am to be in college. As my friends and I drove together in the car, we realized we have no real obligations tying us down — something we will rarely find in our post-graduate lives. Soon enough, we said, our opportunity to take advantage of our youth will dissipate.
The choices are endless: study abroad, enjoy a gap year after graduation, travel the world over the summer. So, we asked ourselves, why are we so hesitant to take advantage these opportunities?
Costs could be a deterrent. It would be disingenuous to pretend studying abroad or taking a gap year is financially feasible for everyone. But hypothetically, what if costs weren’t an issue? What if all the expenses for a gap year spent backpacking through Europe would be magically covered? Would we then grab the opportunity by the horns?
My friend and I discussed the issue, but slowly came to the realization that we would still turn down the opportunity in favor of conventional alternatives. After fourth year, my friend mused, he will need to either directly enter the job market or pursue graduate school. Spending valuable time traveling after graduation could prove detrimental to his career goals, he said. Besides, he justified, if he works hard in his early years and into his adulthood, he will have the option to travel the world later.
I often found myself falling into the same successive rationalizations. But there’s one major flaw in this logic: it absolutely sucks.
In college, so many of us define success by the number of options we have available. Study hard, achieve good grades and have the option of enrolling in the Commerce School or Batten School. This leaves plenty of job options with salaries big enough for houses or cities or kids.
It’s nauseating. It’s as if, after heeding the advice not to put all our eggs in one basket, not to plan our lives around one pivotal aspiration, we have created too many baskets. In a race to ensure freedom to pursue numerous life paths, we have collectively rendered our youth as a time to be exploited, not enjoyed.
Delaying a career or graduate school in favor of traveling or pursuing a passion is seen as “falling behind” — reducing our options down the road, inhibiting our eventual success.
Though having options for a future life is a valid goal, it detracts from experiencing those benefits at a time when we are most able to enjoy them. When else will I be able to travel through Europe as a young adult with few obligations, boundless energy and an open mind?
Our culture is obsessed with mitigating risk. But in the quest for creating future opportunities — baskets for our proverbial eggs — we are destroying the opportunities granted to us in our youth.
To flip the standard, to utilize these opportunities now rather than saving them for later, would allow us to enjoy boundless experiences in our prime and, perhaps, use the wisdom gained from these experiences to help us wade through life’s challenges later on.
Aidan’s column runs biweekly Fridays. He can be reached at a.cochrane@cavalierdaily.com.
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