I haven’t blogged in a while, mostly because my job is now lots of blogging. So, if you’d like to see my blogs on a blog other than my blog, head on over to The Daily South.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately what it means to be a young professional that’s not in college. College is one of those times in your life when you do awesome stuff for a short period of time, and it completely shapes who you are. I felt like I knew very distinctively where I fit in college. I knew who I was in college, who my friends were in college, who I loved in college, and what I was going to eat for lunch.

I’ve had a lot of friends graduate from college and tell me that they wish they could go back. They miss the parties and the structure and the weird happenstances and the yoga pants to 8AM classes.

I don’t miss college.

There, I said it. A lot of people miss college – but I don’t miss college.

When I think about college, my first reaction is – “I’m too old for this shit.” (Sorry, mom!)

I like feeling like I’m growing. I don’t feel an attachment to the brick buildings or the discussions or the textbooks or Facebooking in the library. Do I miss people? Yes. Is it part of growing up to take what you’ve been equipped with and apply it to other areas of your life? Yes. I’m happy keeping the people I love close, and separating them from the college mindset. It turns into mature decisions and scary choices and living places that aren’t accessed with a student ID. But, it’s freeing. It’s knowing that you’re smarter than when you started, and that you’ll never make those same mistakes again.

Regardless of whether or not you consider yourself to have actually learned anything in college, you are 100% not the same person you were going into it. You may have made friends and lost friends. You may have been put in situations that would make your parents cringe. You may have been offered drugs or turned down shots or worn a little less than you should have one night. Maybe, you missed out on a memory because you chose to cram for an exam you should’ve studied for earlier. Maybe you had the perfectly balanced college experience of friends and academics and still slept 8 hours a night (yeah, right!).

Take those experiences, and turn them into a storage of memories that influence how you make your young adult decisions. Don’t carry that immaturity with you. Drinking at 9AM for Spring Break or being argumentative in class or belittling those that are different from you will now only affect you. There’s the change – the responsibility. It’s your life and your choices, but you will still have to own up to those the next day.

But, in the meantime, I still use my student ID for a 10% Goodwill discount.