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I can't imagine having college be the best years of my life. That implies a downhill slope post-college that's just plain depressing on the face of it. Fortuna

I can't imagine having college be the best years of my life. That implies a downhill slope post-college that's just plain depressing on the face of it. Fortunately, I didn't bother going. Had all the fun, none of the responsibilities, and my life has only gotten better in the decades since that time.

freyr 11y ago
Personally, I wouldn't say "the best years," but certainly it was a very unique time that stands out from everything before it, and everything after it. Perhaps this is partly from the excitement of being out on your own for the first time in life, so it's less about college than being "college aged." Then again, the real-life network effect of being surrounded by thousands of other exuberant young people can't be discredited entirely.
CocaKoala 11y ago
College was definitely the best years of my life up to that point. The big reason that I'm glad I went to college is because I went through so many changes as a person in terms of my goals and interests, and so many of those changes were informed by the people around me (including the woman who would later become my wife). If I hadn't gone to college (or even if I had just gone to a different college), then I'd be a very different person than I am today. And obviously, that can't be generalized into anything meaningful; if I had gone to a different college, then I'd be a very different person but that different person might be perfectly happy doing whatever they do, possibly even happier than I am. But if I hadn't gone to college at all, I wouldn't have had that exposure to different people and I wouldn't have decided to explore a number of hobbies that ended up defining who I would become. I wasn't happy with I was out of high school, and the idea of never being shaken out of that is terrifying. If you have a way to change up your environment and expose yourself to new things outside the structure of college, then I can easily believe you can get all the benefits that I got without the responsibilities or the cost. College just happens to provide an easy framework for that happen. I agree that anybody who says "college was the best years of my life", similar to people who say "high school was the best years of my life" to be profoundly sad; I had a total blast in college and while there were some low points immediately after graduation, I'm very excited about where my life has gone and where I can see it going in the future.

freyr 11y ago

Personally, I wouldn't say "the best years," but certainly it was a very unique time that stands out from everything before it, and everything after it. Perhaps this is partly from the excitement of being out on your own for the first time in life, so it's less about college than being "college aged." Then again, the real-life network effect of being surrounded by thousands of other exuberant young people can't be discredited entirely.

CocaKoala 11y ago

College was definitely the best years of my life up to that point. The big reason that I'm glad I went to college is because I went through so many changes as a person in terms of my goals and interests, and so many of those changes were informed by the people around me (including the woman who would later become my wife). If I hadn't gone to college (or even if I had just gone to a different college), then I'd be a very different person than I am today. And obviously, that can't be generalized into anything meaningful; if I had gone to a different college, then I'd be a very different person but that different person might be perfectly happy doing whatever they do, possibly even happier than I am. But if I hadn't gone to college at all, I wouldn't have had that exposure to different people and I wouldn't have decided to explore a number of hobbies that ended up defining who I would become. I wasn't happy with I was out of high school, and the idea of never being shaken out of that is terrifying. If you have a way to change up your environment and expose yourself to new things outside the structure of college, then I can easily believe you can get all the benefits that I got without the responsibilities or the cost. College just happens to provide an easy framework for that happen. I agree that anybody who says "college was the best years of my life", similar to people who say "high school was the best years of my life" to be profoundly sad; I had a total blast in college and while there were some low points immediately after graduation, I'm very excited about where my life has gone and where I can see it going in the future.