YOCO: You Only College Once
April 29, 2024
Writer: Samara Ettenberg
Editor: HY Editors
I’ve always wanted to be one of those people who truly embodies the phrase YOLO—someone who can live in the moment and is effortlessly down for anything. But, just as I have discovered that I will never be classified as a “cool girl,” I have also concluded that I am not someone who floats through life always down for an adventure. Despite desperately trying, I am not adaptable, effortless, or reckless. Instead I am meticulous, thought out, and a planner through and through. “Wild” is not a word my friends would choose to describe me. However, I still consider myself to be fun and playful. I hope to fill my life with joyful and exciting moments. So, instead of the overused and impossible standard of the YOLO saying, I have decided to adapt the phrase YOCO. “You’re only in college once.”
Although it is only a slight change it has encouraged me to include spontaneity in my life while still staying true to who I am. Every time I feel myself wanting to stay in bed on a Friday night instead of going out, I find this mantra ringing in my mind. I am only in college once and I want to take advantage of every opportunity to listen to my favorite songs and dance like crazy people with my best friends. Even when I find myself wanting to use my workload as an excuse for why I can’t hang out and watch Hannah Montana or Sex and the City, I remind myself that I can never get these years back. The work will always get done, but you can never get back some of those casual moments with the people you love. These four years of my life, where all my friends live just around the corner, and we have nothing but time and energy, is the time of my life to live a little bit.
This YOCO mindset is one I have adopted on the verge of my mid-college crisis. Similar to the mid-life crisis, it is this time, two years into my college journey, that I have realized that half of my time in college has passed me by, and I feel just a tad on edge about the whole thing. While I wouldn’t consider a single second wasted thus far, there are many moments I wish I would have taken the opportunity to make more of. More people I could have reached out to grab lunch with, more afternoons I could have spent laying out in the sun, more time spent taking it all in. I’ve tried hard to internalize that every moment is precious and that I can never get this time back, but it is still hard not to regret the time I have already lost. Instead, I am choosing to use it as encouragement for all that I can do in the next two years.
As I roll into my third year of college and over the hump of my mid-college crisis, I continue to treat my time in this special place as rare and fleeting. To take every opportunity to do the things I love, make memories I will hold for a lifetime, and be with the people who make me the happiest. Not all of us are meant to be wild and spontaneous, but it is immensely easier to just be fun and appreciative. Remind yourself often how important it is to treat every part of your life as unique, full of joy and love, and as something you might only experience once.