You Can Love Your Life Now!

By Charlene M Brown

If you’ve been following my articles for awhile or if you just take a look through this category (College Taught You What!?), you will find that I often talk about (well, write about) what college didn’t teach me, noting the irony in the title!

Well, this time, I am going to talk about what I did learn while I was in college.

My senior year in high school, was a little rough for me. My best friend had just transferred to a new school, and in her void, I was shut out of a lot of things that I had only been included in because of her. I was stressed about getting into and going to college, tired of taking tests and filling out applications for this or that. I was just plain tired!

In August, I went off to college with this same weariness.

My first year in English class, our final paper was a topic of our own choosing. The professor would call on us to get up in front of the class to read what he deemed “excellent” papers. That year, I gave a tearful, heartfelt “speech” (it was really an essay) about how the great people I had met in college made room at the table for a militant mixie like me. Those are some good people!

Sometime during that same first year, I got booed off the stage (a very humorous story!), which led me to leave the confines of the university and push out an about in the city. There I met many of the wonderful people that the transient city had to offer. I was well-nurtured in the artists’ lair. More good folks!

I had roommates who stayed up talking with me in the kitchen ‘til 3am. I had classmates who “thought I always had the right answer” and took a chance on partnering with me. People who really “got me” and could explain things to me in a way that I understood! People who taught me great lessons about myself that I didn’t even know I was looking to learn. Some of these have been cultivated into my greatest friendships today!

I met people while I was in college who I could have incredible intellectual conversations and share great laughter with. For the first time in my life, I had girlfriends who could laugh and giggle with me. I remember fondly our “Girls Nights In” which usually consisted of Disney movies and some form of music playing/singing!

While I was in college, I found a great love and acceptance in people that I didn’t know existed before. And an unexpected closeness with people I knew before I got there that made it all worthwhile!

In college, I learned the true meaning of “embrace”, both in its physical form and its mental and spiritual forms. I learned to live life as an adventure, new and beautiful every day! I learned that I could, indeed, change the world!

How AWESOME Is that!?

So Go!, Enjoy all that college has to offer you or has already offered you! Be in Awe of all the amazing people and places and things all around you!

On that note, I wrote this poem while I was in college—it’s one of my favorites, and I want to share it with you:

(For K)

Look at that rainbow

The man carelessly standing at the light said.

I looked.

I wanted to BE that rainbow

I wanted to be that rare phenomena

That filled the world with light, where we thought there was none! © 2004 CMB

Do You Love Your Life Now! I DO (Because I discovered great people while I was in college!)

Related posts:

1. Everything I Was Supposed To Learn In College I Already Learned In Kindergarten
2. Making Friends and Fitting In: The Elusive Struggles of the Ugly Duckling!
3. My College Lied To Me: The Falsities of Getting A Job After College!
4. So Many Bumpy Roads, So Little Time!
5. Fight Night: Packing Big Punches (With Little Effort)!

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