Back in August 2008, when I was about to start my freshmen year of college, there were several events conducted by the school during with the purpose of making the transition progress from life at home to college smoother--aka orientation. Although people have a ton of orientation stories that have nothing to do with the actual orientation because no one remembers most of the activities or talks from orientation, I found some value in orientation. Actually, to be perfectly honest, I don't remember any of the actual orientation either, but there's one particular moment that stands out. During a really long series of speeches given in a cozy room full of freshmen, a woman talked about how the whole point of college was to come out a different person than who they currently were.
We were being challenged to step outside of our comfort zone, join clubs, try new things, hang out with people you wouldn't usually hang out with, play sports, engage in substance abuse, and basically push ourselves in any way we could--or at least that's what I thought at the time. See, I now realize that what she actually meant was not to live through these things, but to live alongside them and see what you can take away from it, and what you can leave back. Your life isn't defined by where you are, who you're with, or even what you do. I think life is more about how you react to certain situations and, to quote a cliche, how to "grow from them". There's a reason why people only really remember certain classes from college, certain people they meet, certain social gatherings, etc. I mean, sure we all love things that give us immediate satisfaction like fireworks, chocolate, or even simple comedy (seeing someone puke, slip in their vomit, pass out, wake up the next morning with half a face of vomit and half a face of black-sharpie penises), but it's still bigger than that.
At the end of the day, everything you do is pretty selfish in one way or another because all you really do is subconsciously use everything and everyone else to become a better version of yourself (hopefully). You doesn't really change your persona during college--you simply become a more defined version of who you are and this is done through choice. I guess my point is that people are more distanced from their surroundings than they think they are. When all is said and done, we're all forming impressions of ourselves in the world, but these impressions are constantly changing. So, in a way, we don't actually ever change.
