Settling

Preface: I am college student and every day, when meal time comes around, I basically have four options…

1) “The Met”= I think that stands for Metamorphosis Cafe, but it should be more like the Makes-Eating-Terrible Cafe. It’s the on campus cafeteria that is included in the meal plan you pay for at the beginning of semester and I really don’t think people should eat that food twice a day every day. The salad bar is nice, but is it fresh? The pizza’s not so bad at first, but I dare you to eat that every day… If all else fails you can always ask for a burger and at least you can watch them make that. 

2) On-campus Subway= This is definitely a top choice, but my meal plan only allows $250 a semester to be spent anywhere that’s not The M.E.T. Also, you can only eat so many subway sandwiches in a row before it gets really old. Not everyone can be like you Jared!

3) On-campus Chick-fil-A= Hands down deliciousness. Who doesn’t love a good ol’ Chick-fil-A sandwich coupled by a pack of savory waffle fries?! Well I guess vegetarians would only appreciate the fries, but you get my point—it’s delicious! Unfortunately, I can’t eat this for every meal, so I limit myself to about once a week.

4) Ramon Noodles- Every college student can appreciate a 10 cent bowl of microwavable noodles. The way we look at it, reasonably good food tastes even better when it’s cheap! Not to mention, if you’re trying to avoid the “Freshman 15,” it only contains like 190 calories. I mean I’m not Ramon’s PR or anything, but how could I pass up an opportunity to inform you on the value of Ramon Noodles?!

Now that you are a little more familiar with the predicament I encounter when meal time comes along, you can understand why I was so excited to eat Chick-fil-A for lunch today. I ate with a couple friends who then introduced me to a couple of their friends and it turned out to be a pleasant social hour escape from constant studying. At some point, amongst the many interesting things that came up, one of the new guys said something that really resonated with me. He said, “I just think way too many people settle these days.” And he couldn’t have pinned the tail on the donkey more accurately. We tend to spend way too much of our time making excuses when we could “Just Do It,” like Nike has been trying to communicate to us for years!

This new guy had a point and as much as I’ve always strived not to be the person who settles, there was one thing I just couldn’t stop thinking about…

My Desire: Do some kind of study abroad program sometime during college career.

My Excuse(s): Could I afford that, money wise and education wise? I mean if I want to get my undergraduate in four years, take the MCAT and then go to med school, would I even have time for a semester abroad?

My Reality Check: What am I thinking?! If I want to study a semester abroad, then I can and will do so, or at least try. Granted, I’m not going to get in my car and drive to the airport when I finish this post, but I also won’t let myself rule this out as an option sometime in the near future.

Growing up, you’re always told to “follow your dreams” and to “never give up.” These are valuable life lessons! Fulfill your dreams and don’t miss out on the life you always wanted because you settled. Trying something and failing is a life lesson, but not trying something at all is a lesson in not living life at all.