College is the elusive place from movies and TV shows where you cross off a bunch of firsts, “find yourself” and leave thinking it was the best four years of your life. But what will make college the best four years is not all that it promises you, but the way you go about fulfilling those promises.

As Syracuse University freshmen start their first year on the Hill, don’t passively wait for the clubs and courses you’re passionate about to find you. Starting college gives you a four-year-long blank slate and it’s for this reason that you should come into college with a completely open mind — a readiness to expand on what you already know and find out what you don’t know at all.

These years at SU are when you can discern your own beliefs and ideologies. At time when you may want to cling to the familiarity of your parents’ political party and religion, freshman year is the chance to use the tools that SU offers and figure out who you are before you head out into the real world after graduation.

The early years of college should be the time when you take the courses that interest you. Take that intergroup dialogue course, that political science class, psych class or sports class that sparks your interest now, instead of later. It’s important to pursue classes for your major and get your pre-requisites done, but don’t wait until junior or senior year to learn about the different lenses that others see the world in and challenge your own perspective on life.

High school didn’t offer the same variety of courses, and across every department at SU, there are esteemed faculty that have spent years digging through each and every topic. By taking these classes now, you will start considering ideologies and viewpoints you just may have gone your entire life without thinking about. One of the worst things you can do is squander the early time you have to explore your curiosities, only to feel confused and second guess yourself when the time comes to focus on a track.

But the learning doesn’t have to just stop there: get involved in one of the student groups SU has to offer. Particularly in an election year, it’s important to figure out where you stand on the problems that young people today face in America. No one is ever too young to make the effort to educate themselves on social issues and their legislation, because the outcomes of these votes affect everyone. Whether or not you’re looking to get your foot in the political door, joining a political organization like College Democrats or the non-partisan Political Dialogue Group forces students to pay attention to politics as well as broaden their social stance by listening to different ones.

Another prevalent group on campus is the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG), which is New York state’s largest student-directed research and advocacy organization. The group has chapters at 17 college campuses across New York state, including SU. Teaming up with NYPIRG gives students the chance to learn more about pressing concerns such as environmental protection, higher education, government reform, and public health, to name a few.

These issues do and will continue to affect young people of this generation. As such, Anissa Vasquez, an SU sophomore in the College of Arts and Science who has worked for NYPIRG’s New York City office, said she believes that it is important for young people to know they have a voice and the opportunity to challenge the status quo.

“The incentive to having hard conversations and challenging yourself to have an open mind about all things going on right now, is that you are far more aware, and a lot more conscious on a large range of issues,” said Vasquez.

And ultimately, that’s what you should want when you leave these four years: to learn as much as you can so that you know much more when you enter the real world.

Because really, the real world is just one big college. Put aside the questionable party behaviors that seem to work now but probably won’t be accommodated outside the parameters of these four years, and what you have is a bunch of different people, exploring a bunch of different ideas, actively trying to create themselves and their own world.

So teach yourself to be open to all the opportunities that people, classes, and groups will present to you over the next four years. Opportunities to solidify and challenge your beliefs, to learn more about what the world you live in is all about and how you fit into that narrative. Teach yourself how to be a student of life, and college won’t just be the best four years of your life — your life will be the best years of your life.

Chandler Dunn is a senior magazine journalism major, and history and political science dual minor. She can be reached at ccdunn@syr.edu and followed on Twitter @ccrdunn.

Published on August 23, 2016 at 11:04 pm