Your college years are not the best four years of your life. You’re not going to peak at 21. Sorry to disappoint. (Really, would anyone actually want to go to college if it just meant watching everything slide downhill after graduation?)

However, the next four or so years of your life can be really good years, if you go after them.

A lot of people come to college with this idea in their head that it’s going to play out like it does in books and movies. The weather will never change, the coffee shop is never too busy, class is never inconveniently timed, the cute boy or girl at the bar will make eye contact from across the room.

Real life doesn’t work like that.

For the most part, you will not just luck out. Good things will not just fall into your lap. More likely, it will rain when you least expect it to. You will wait in line for ages to get your coffee. Class will always seem like it’s at a bad time. And you’re going to have to walk up to the bar and talk to that guy or girl.

You can’t spend all your time idling at the curb, waiting for life to happen. Sometimes you have to get in the car and drive.

There’s a list titled “Some Rules for Students and Teachers,” popularized by American composer John Cage but originally written by artist and educator Sister Corita Kent and later adopted by the art department at Immaculate Heart College, her alma mater.

The seventh rule reads: “The only rule is work. If you work it will lead to something. It’s the people who do all of the work all of the time who eventually catch on to things.”
You have to do the work.

It’s really easy to drift through college. Don’t. As a freshman, I wasn’t quite sure what I would do. And then I joined the Wildcat, and now, here I am, serving as editor-in-chief.

Find something you love in college and invest in it. Commit to it. Be present always.

There is no better time than now, during your college years, to take control of your life. To pursue the things you want and rid yourself of what you don’t. To challenge your own expectations and convictions. To further your personal growth. To make these next four years better and to better yourself.

You can’t expect anyone else to draw you a map and hold your hand. You have resources, of course. You should pull everything you can out of your professors, your fellow students, everyone you meet. And the Arizona Daily Wildcat can also serve as a resource to help you travel that road. After all, you can’t do the work if you’re not informed.

But the UA is your community, and this is your job. You have a responsibility to be informed, aware, involved. No one else will do it for you. You have to be kind. Be good. Be humble. Be grateful. Say thank you. Drive forward.

Be better than you were four years ago. In four more years, be better than who you are now.

Keep moving.

— Kristina Bui is the editor-in-chief of the Arizona Daily Wildcat. She can be reached at
editor@wildcat.arizona.edu or on Twitter via @kbui1