When I started university back in 2019, my mom gifted me a necklace with a key pendant and told me seven simple words: “You hold the key to your future.”

It’s a phrase that I thought would get lost in the cluster of mediocre memories that plague my 25 years on this planet, but as I get closer and closer to leaving the school that I practically lived in for five years, it seems to echo over and over again. 

Everyone knows the saying “stop and smell the roses,” but none of us actually take the time to appreciate what we’re doing right now. Instead, we’re rushing through life trying to get to the next great thing. 

The secret is that “the great thing” you’re rushing towards is the life you’re living right now.

Something that almost every college and university website will tell you is that it takes an average of four years to complete an undergraduate degree.

Let’s do some math here: You need 120 credits to graduate with each course being three credits. That means you need to take five classes a semester to complete your degree within four years — that’s 40 classes. That is completely doable for some people, but for others,  life can get in the way. Five classes is a lot to handle when you’re spending over twelve hours a week in class, on top of the recommended 50 to 60 hours of studying and assignment work you should be doing. 

Undergraduate students have roughly 40 to 50 free hours a week to spend on extra curricular activities, part-time jobs, building relationships, and taking care of their minds and bodies per week, or roughly 6 hours a day while also getting the eight hours of recommended sleep. 

I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t seem reasonable to me nor does it align with my lifestyle. So why is it that we feel like failures when we take an extra year or two to complete our degree? Why do we get a sinking feeling pressing the “drop class” button when you know it will provide a sense of relief. Why do we feel like we wasted time when transferring from the program we enrolled in when we were 18 into the one that you actually enjoy?

Because that’s what we’re told to feel. By putting our education second, we have failed at being the idealized version of students. I’m tired of feeling like I’m not doing enough because I’m not following everyone else’s standards of how things should be. No one should feel like they don’t hold the key to their own future.

Whether you’re graduating or coming back next semester, I think everyone deserves to know that you were good enough to get into this school, you are good enough to study here, and you are more than good enough to take your time getting through it. Once that time is gone, there is no getting it back, so enjoy it while you still have it. 

Like your friendly, neighbourhood Spider-Man Miles Morales once said, “Nah, imma do my own thing.”

I’m proud to say that it took me five years, a degree switch, and more trips to Tim’s than I care to admit to complete my degree. I couldn’t be more proud of myself for getting through it and you should be proud of yourself for doing it too. 

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Photo by Amanda Erickson