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Now or Never: Is College Your Last Chance to Have Fun?

Do you picture yourself going to frat parties and drinking from red plastic cups when you’re forty? Will an older version of you travel to Madrid on a whim?  Probably not. There are some experiences that you only get to have in college, or at least, that is what students are thinking according to the study “You’re Only Young Once”: Things College Students Report Doing Now Before It Is Too Late by Russell D. Ravert.

Last year, the Journal of Adolescent Research published the “You’re Only Young Once” study, or as I like to call it, the Now or Never Study.  The study looks at the motivations of college students to do certain activities now because they believe they won’t be able to do them later in life. The categories of behaviors were identified as:

1. Travel/Adventure (study abroad)

2. Social Events (parties, hanging out)

3. Alcohol/tobacco/drug use

4. Relationships (read: promiscuous sex)

5. Carefree lifestyle (read: all of the above)

6. Sports/Action (skateboarding, football)

7. Academic/Career

8. Independence/Personal Expression (dying hair magenta)

The study states that the current generation of college students is stuck between adolescence and adulthood for longer than previous generations. Why us? Societal changes, like spending more time in school for secondary education and marrying at a later age are cited as reasons for why our generation is extending the transition to adulthood. Emerging adulthood has become a distinct life stage, whereas in the past, you had the whole “and now you are a Man” experience of graduating, getting a job and marrying your high school sweetheart.

We have so many options and we want to explore them all before committing – this is what the students in the study say, in a nutshell. This “identity exploration” is vital to “emerging adult development,” but it also opens the door for dangerous behavior. According to the study, risky behavior statistically peaks during sophomore year, followed by juniors, with seniors and freshmen reporting the least number of risky behaviors. But you can reassure your parents that the most common “now or never” actions are fairly innocent: traveling and socializing.

Traveling, exploring new places, and spontaneous travel were the most common behaviors students listed as things they wanted to do now, but didn’t think they would be able to do in the future. Going out to parties, clubs, concerts, and staying out late, or social goals, were the second most common behaviors listed.

Alcohol/drug use was only the third most common category. Students mostly wrote “binge drinking, drinking heavily, playing drinking games and excessive alcohol,” but drug use was only mentioned by 11 out of the 248 participants.

“Relationships” was the fourth most written category with comments mostly about dating multiple people.

Students who answered the questionnaire on which the study was based described adulthood as a loss of freedom, a time when they would become confined to a particular place and social group – and when they would have to get to bed early.  I don’t pretend to be an expert on adulthood, but that seems like a very bleak picture. If I believed that, I’d want to binge drink too.

But having graduated three years ago, gotten the full time cubicle job and a steady relationship – the only thing I think these students predicted correctly is the early bedtime. Staying up past 11 has become a challenge for me at the ripe old age of twenty-five.

Before I went to college, I was told that this would be “the best time of your life.” In the words of Mr. T, I pity the fool who believes that. It’s true that college is an amazing world-expanding time where you’ll meet lifelong friends and do things you’ll talk about until you’re ninety. But it’s also a time of searching, confusion, trial, failure and uncertainty. There is, I promise, a better time than college – and that is when you find what you want to do with your life and kick butt at it. Granted, this glorious time of life does not come with its own Belgian waffle-serving dining hall, and that is a bit of a let down.

So what is the lesson here? Our generation has the chance to beat the bad rap we have given to adulthood. We have the chance that all previous generations have had: to not become our parents.