College is Not a Panacea

I apologize for not posting in the past couple of weeks. Things have been quite busy at both work and home. Thanks for sticking with me!

You might be wondering what I am referring to in the title of this blog post. What I mean is that going to college is not going to solve all of your problems. You will still have your family, your friends, and most importantly, yourself to deal with. College may provide you some physical and mental space to reflect on the various things that cause you to groan, but it will not make them magically go away.

I have spoken to many students who just can't wait to go to college so they can get away from the circumstances of their lives. However, just as one moves from place A to place B for college, one's problems also move from place A to place B with you. You can never escape from the things that ail you without confronting them head on. It often seems like it would be easier to confront our problems if we weren't so enmeshed in them. But this is precisely why they are problems. They are a part of you, and are related to how you see the world and your relationship to it. You will still see the world the same way when you go to college.

Does your mom become less overbearing when you don't live in the same house? Perhaps in the sense that she isn't physically looking over your shoulder all the time, but not really in the sense that she calls your cell every 3 hours. You see, the problem - your mother's overbearing nature and your inability to deal with it - remain. As I said, the only hope going to college provides is that it can give you time to reflect and consider new ways to constructively deal with your problems. Making new friends might aid you in this process, but the hard work - change - is all up to you.

Welcome to adulthood!