What does college mean today?

                When is the last time you took a class simply because you wanted to try something new? Have you tried a novel thing lately? Most likely the answer to both of these questions is no. It is often a struggle to fully experience emerging adulthood while at Emory.

Emerging adulthood is the period from the ages of 18-25, during which people are supposed to explore their identity and are free to try different lifestyles. Parsons (1942) describes our role during this time as a roleless one. We are not yet tied down to a family or profession and thus better able to take risks. During this time most people leave their parent’s home and live in different places from year to year. The focus of the emerging adulthood is not the future, rather on one’s current development and exploration is of utmost importance.

While at Emory, it is difficult to view your life in this way. Most people are either pre-med, pre-business, pre-law or at least questioning why they are not one of these. Talk about summer internships or the MCAT is rampant on campus. Our college experience is often seen as merely a stepping stone for the future. Since we have lots of GER’s it can be hard to even allow yourself to try new fields that may actually be your true passion. Yet, if we had this option, I question whether students would take advantage of it.

At Emory students do take advantage of one type of exploration, social exploration. Like most colleges, drinking and sexual experimentation are prominent here at Emory. This period in our lives is when we are able to freely partake in these activities with little worry of the consequences. Later in life this will no longer be possible.

College in America used to be more oriented towards finding yourself and deciding what you want to do with your life. It is now much more like the European system, where high school is where you figure out who you are and what you want to do with your life.

This transformation from a place of exploration to a place that is more career and future oriented needs to be noticed. Do you really know who you want to be and what you want to do for the rest of your life or are you merely molding yourself into the social norms? Think about this question seriously the next time you are picking your classes or figuring out what to do on a Saturday afternoon.