College is the time of your life when you’re supposed to figure everything out: your job, your views on life, whom you want to marry, et cetera, et cetera. In short, it’s characterized by life-changing moments.

I feel like I’m being shorted. Maybe it’s all of this Occupy Wall Street business, but I don’t feel as if I’m figuring out anything in this chaos that I call “life.” What motivates my college career is not that which I am trying to figure out, but what I can do to get me out of debt! I will complete my undergraduate degree with a decent loan payment, but I will have to continue my education in graduate school if I hope to be able to support myself down the road.

I don’t know what the typical life is for a college student, but more often than not I hear complaints of being worked to the bone. I currently work three jobs and have an apartment as well as a car to pay for, all on top of going to school full-time. Where is my college American dream?

For many of us, going out or being carefree is a thing of the far distant past. Worrying about your social life? Or better yet, your grades? How about worrying about paying for groceries or the electric bill?

College isn’t the highlight of our life where we will meet our life-long friends. We don’t have the time for that. For those of us who are forced to make ends meet on our own, this period of time could be likened to a bad dream from which we’re hoping to eventually wake. If we work hard enough in every area of life, we will eventually escape this period of exhaustion. However, it seems that this is not quite enough and that only a blessed few will escape this nightmare.

I don’t think that this is how it should be. I think that college really should be a time for self-discovery and growth, a time for figuring out what your interests are and having the freedom to pursue them. It should be the time when you figure out your goals and your purpose. For those who can’t have the traditional college experience, perhaps their circumstances should be taken into consideration by financial aid or admissions.

What I am trying to say is that not everyone shares “the college experience,” so don’t take it for granted.