Registration, winter lock-ins, the end of 2026. Upcoming project deadlines, then finals, and questions like, “Have you secured your internship yet?” or “When is your interview prep session for that scholarship?” If you don’t sign up for your free month of workout classes now and put together a meal plan before you grocery shop, then when are you going to have time to study for the DAT, the LSAT, the MCAT or the NCLEX? 

To sum up the feeling: you’re running out of time.  

There’s something about this time of year and the fast-paced world we live in that has us convinced we’re already falling behind on our goals. The job market is cutthroat and competitive, and internships are flying off the shelves. There’s already a feeling of impending doom in the air about which of your classes will be too full to override into, and somehow, it’s always the one you need to graduate.  

It’s stressful, it’s nerve-wracking. It’s every synonym for anxiety-inducing that exists in the thesaurus.  

So let me tell you a secret.  

You’re not running out of time.  

You don’t have to compare your shortcomings to others’ successes. In fact, you don’t need to compare yourself to anyone at all. Keep working for your dreams, of course, and never give up, but stop racing towards a goal at full speed and running over everything in your path.  

When you graduate, whether that’s in a year, or two years, or three, or four, there’s going to be moments of your college career that you’ll remember forever. Some of them will be running from one meeting to the next, or the fourth round of interviews at a firm you really wanted to work at or even that very stressful week of exams you thought you’d never make it out of. That’s the part of life you can’t get around, and it’s the part that gets you somewhere in the long run.  

Yet when you look back on your favorite memories of college or even just life so far, it’s not the high-stress moments that jump to the front. It’s the fits of laughter with your friends in between practice tests, the type of giggling that has tears coming to your eyes and the people around you wondering if you need help. It’s the mornings on your couch watching the scary movie you couldn’t finish when it was dark outside, and then watching Disney shorts to make yourselves feel better. The spare moments, the stolen moments, these precious seconds, minutes and hours that we collect with people –– that’s the real goal.  

Our time here in college is limited, yes, and eventually it will run out. You can cram your schedule so full of activities that you only have time to breathe every other hour if that’s the way you want to do it. Or you can realize something simple. 

Time is all we have.  

Spend it well.