Life Lessons Courtesy of College - 4

Cherish The Time You Have With Family


In my family I am the oldest of three kids- my younger sister is 3 years younger than me and my younger brother is 8 years younger. When growing up, as is customary with the oldest child, I was always breaking down barriers with my parents that my siblings were then able to waltz on through such as later bed times and phone privileges. I had always felt like my parents were holding me back and not allowing me to grow up and be the "adult" I thought I was. When it came to high school (especially my senior year) fights became more prevalent and often ended with me yelling "I can't wait to leave this place and not have to be here with you" to my parents. At the time, I had no other way I could express my growing hostility towards them and I had felt like I deserved to be treated more like an adult with less restrictions and rules than my siblings. 

Sadly, with all the fighting and hostility in the house I had grown away from my family. I began working more hours and longer hours at work to be away from them and did everything I could to have a minimal presence at my family's home. Looking back on it, I regret every minute of that. When it came to move in day at the dorms, I was ecstatic. I was finally going to be able to do what I wanted on my own time with no parents looming over me and telling me I was doing the wrong things. What I didn't realize, however, was how much I would actually miss my family. The first week was nothing out of the ordinary as I had spent weeks apart from my family. When the first month of school flew by I was starting to miss my family. While I was still young and immature at the time, I began to realize how much my family actually meant to me and how I did want to see them but at the time, I only wanted to see them in short time spans. It took me a whole year away from my family to fully realize and understand the true value of family and to actually enjoy the time I had with them. 

As I look back on my immature and selfish years I carry a heavy sense of regret. Just this past week, my family moved to Philadelphia- a whole 2 hour plane ride away. Where they are living up north now, I will be remaining down in Georgia to finish my degree and for my job offer I have once I graduate. I regret not cherishing the moments I had with them while I had the convenience of them living an hour car ride away. I regret the small and meaningless fights we had over me wanting my independence. But most of all, I regret not spending more time with them. Now, I will only have the ability to see them on holidays and once every couple of months. No longer will I be able to call up my mother and ask her if she wants to have lunch with me. So while it might seem like your family is overbearing and holding you back, I encourage you to look at it as them showing they love you. It was too late for me to realize that before my family moved away. Cherish all the moments you have with your family now while you can because you might not always have the ease or ability to call them up and see them when you'd like. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Life Lessons Courtesy of College - 5

Create Your Own Opportunities Being in college comes with the ultimate goal of finding a job. Most people, like me, also need to land an internship opportunity during their college career in order to achieve their coveted full time job opportunity upon graduation. One tough lesson to learn with all of this stress looming over my head was that these jobs were not the type where you can simply apply online and attach a tiny resume and hear a call back that you got the job like it was when I got my first few part time jobs in high school. No, these jobs required effort, a padded resume, and the art of networking. When I had first begun applying for internships the summer before my junior year, I was not the least bit of a "young professional". I had no clue what I was doing. I applied like crazy to jobs I found through the UGA Career Center website, LinkedIn, and all of the other job websites that existed. I spammed employers with my {barely there} resume in the hope th...
Read more

Life Lessons Courtesy of College

Image
I'd be lying if I said I went into college and didn't think I had everything figured out, but then again what 18 year old doesn't? Fresh out of high school and now "on your own" (despite still being financially dependent on your parents) gives you a rush of independence like no other. No longer do you have a midnight curfew- you get to stay out however long you want! But after these past 3 years I learned that I couldn't have been more wrong in my mindset. I was utterly and completely clueless when it came to living in the adult world. Growing up and learning important life lessons certainly isn't easy and not always a welcomed venture yet once you accept that you do not in fact know everything about everything and open your mind up to learning new things you realize the world isn't as scary of a place as it once seemed. Over the next few months I will enlighten you on some of the few lessons college taught me from the Freshman 15 to the unknown str...
Read more

Life Lessons Courtesy of College - 7

Money Matters When leaving for college, the first thing you think of is the fact that you are now a full-blown “adult” regardless of how untrue that really is. A hard lesson learned when I became an independent adult was the true value of budgeting. In high school, the money I earned didn’t go into a savings account but rather straight to whatever outfit I wanted or activity I wanted to attend. I never learned the true value of saving my money for a rainy day because I never envisioned that rainy day to ever actually happen. My parents have always instilled a sense of responsibility to my siblings and me, especially when it came to paying for things that were not priorities. Thus, when I made the decision to join a sorority it became my financial responsibility to pay for the hefty dues that came along with it. Sadly, after frivolously spending my money in high school I had close to no money in the bank. I quickly came to understand what it felt to actually be a poor college s...
Read more