I’m transcribing interviews with military veterans and to say it has been an enlightening experience is an understatement. I have definitely learned things that I never would have before, and it has provided me insight that I can and will use as a professional (if I ever score that ever-elusive first job, of course). I am bothered, though, by one man’s continual statement that “College should prepare kids for the real world.”

I am not denying that college is a great place that prepares students for the next step in their life- that’s why I’ve spent the last two years getting a master’s degree in college student personnel and why I want so badly to work with college age students. But I am so incredibly bothered by the fact that this guy was saying that “real life” doesn’t start until after college. As a non-traditional student, I feel like he should have understood that life starts regardless of college. In fact, he referenced his other jobs while in the National Guard before taking courses and how they showed him what real life was.

I don’t see where people can say that ‘real life’ hasn’t started yet. I remember people saying it when I was graduating from high school, and I felt the same way then. If ‘real life’ hasn’t started yet, than what the hell have I been doing for the last 17, 21, or 23 years of my existence on Earth? When I look back, that’s all life that I have lived, and no one can tell me it wasn’t real.

I suppose the point he was trying to make was that students aren’t prepared for that next step- to take on life without training-wheels, per say, and tackle it on their own. And I can agree with that, but that doesn’t mean that college, or high school, or childhood, isn’t part of ‘real life’. I never woke up the day after a graduation and thought, “Wow. Now life can start.” Because it started the minute I was born, in my opinion. And this whole ‘real life’ deal, to me, takes away from people recognizing that they’re living and to enjoy their life. If you’re waiting around for ‘real life’ to start, you’ll never actually know that life is, in fact, passing you by.

Now all this isn’t to say that I haven’t taken my own life or experiences for granted, I dare say everyone probably has at some point or another, but right now, in this moment, I know that my life is now. It’s what I make of it and my past experiences aren’t any less real because I was in college when they happened.

College students can make amazing, incredible things happen. I watched it when I was in college, and I continue to be inspired and in awe of the things that college students, with no ‘real life’ experience, can think of and achieve. This is often outweighed by media and entertainment, and let’s be honest-actual college students who partake in this behavior, as a time in one’s life when they are able to do what they want to without consequence. You can party until the sun comes up and ignore the classes that cost exorbitant amounts of money and do whatever the hell you want, but still. That is your life. And your choice, and those students will not be prepared for the next step if they don’t view that ‘real life’ has always been happening and, instead, are waiting for the magical day when they move their tassel from the right to the left side.

I think that if students are challenged to change their thinking and view all of their lives as ‘real’ they’ll be better equipped to make better decisions and better prepared to take on the next step in their lives. No more of this waiting bullshit, because life will pass you by before you realize it.