By Cassidy Pate | Reporter
Judah and the Lion’s lyrics, “I ain’t trading my youth for no suit and jacket,” gave me a newfound perspective of what the college years are meant to look like –– youthful. In college, and today’s world especially, being consumed by the idea of what the future holds has become too easy.
For me, high school was the phase before college. Naturally, college was the phase before the real world. This left me with little to no room for the here and now.
I spent every minute of high school thinking about college and my high school experience was shaken because of it. As soon as I stepped onto Baylor’s campus, I became overwhelmed by the idea that every move I made from that point on would affect my future.
With a fast-paced lifestyle, we are constantly on the go or thinking about the next move. Even when we are sitting at home watching Netflix, our minds wander off into the thought of what is to come following the end of the show’s season.
What one may call fear, another may call preparation. Personally, call it reversed “real world-itis.” Instead of slacking and taking time for ourselves as many of us did in our later years of high school (admit it, you did it, too), the majority of college students have become engrossed by the idea that the real world is upon us.
Back to Judah and the Lion –– this folk pop band is composed of four men who met in college, dropped out to make a career out of music and are now touring around the world. In other words, they took their lyrics literally and failed to trade their youth for a suit and jacket.
This is not an ad for college drop-outs, but a realization that college is college, the future is in the future, and spending our time worried about what is to come of it will only end in missed opportunities.
Whether you are debating graduate school or even continuing your college experience beyond this semester, take some time to recognize why we are here in the first place –– to get a degree so that the leap into the real world is not an immensely frightening one.
With that, we must remind ourselves that God placed us here for a reason. If He called us to follow our dreams of becoming musicians like Judah and the Lion, then we would be working toward that. If He wanted us to neglect college and go right into the real world, then we would be doing that. But, for those of us He placed in college, we must remain confident in our purpose and take every step one foot at a time.
So, this is for all of us who were called to attend college. The real world is waiting, but it is patient. When we are ready, we will conquer it wearing our own versions of a suit and jacket.
Until then, let us remain steadfast in our youth and have faith that our preparation in the college world will guide us as we leap into the real world.
