I want to dispel a common myth that you’ve all probably heard before. “College is the best time of your life.” It’s not and this myth is making everyone scared of graduation and the “real world.” Think about that statement. If it’s true, then that means you peaked at 22 and that the remaining 60+ years are all downhill. How depressing. I refuse to think that way. You choose to be happy. As cliché as that saying may be, it’s true. If you know someone who’s graduated and still considers their undergrad experience the best time of their life then they’re doing something wrong.

I’ll tell you what the saying should be. “College is the best time of your life “¦ so far.” If you do it right, it should be a million times better than anything you’ve ever experienced before. But that’s the way every stage of life should be. Live it up. Experience it to the fullest, and make it the best time of your life “¦ so far.

So how do you do that?

Learn. Care about what you’re learning, how much you learn and, perhaps most importantly, learn how to learn. There’s no skill more valuable in the “real world” than the ability to learn anything quickly and easily.

But don’t study too much. Seriously. The difference between a good grade and a great grade is an amount of effort that doesn’t always correlate.

Consider going Greek. It was the second best decision I made in college. The friendships and the experiences will last long beyond graduation. But if you do go Greek, don’t limit your circle of friends to your brothers or sisters, which leads me to my next point.

Don’t stop meeting new people. You’ll meet a lot of new people freshman year, but for some reason around 2nd semester of sophomore year, everyone sort of gives up and grows comfortable with their circle of friends. Don’t do that. The thing I loved the most about Trinity was the people, and some of my best Trinity friends post-college are people I met my final semester of senior year.

Study abroad. It was the best decision I made in college. It will change you and you’ll have an insanely awesome time doing it.  Ask anyone that did it and they’ll tell you the same.

Finally, don’t let anyone tell you that you need to know what you want to do with your life. If you think you know, and you need to start a course path that begins day one of first year then that’s awesome, go for it. But make sure you’re doing it for you and because it’s what makes you happy; not your parents, not your teachers, not alumni like myself writing columns in The Trinitonian who think they might have good advice.

If you have no clue, don’t worry about it. Study whatever interests you. Odds are you won’t even use your major after graduation. I doubled in Economics and Spanish and on graduation day, I had absolutely no clue what I wanted to do with my life. I’m now running a tech start-up called doUdeal.com. It’s the easiest way to buy and sell on and around campus (Check it out, but I won’t plug it anymore than that!). I spend my days marketing, web designing, programming, meeting with investors and doing a dozen other random things that pop up. I didn’t study any of those subjects at Trinity. But I was taught how to learn. Most importantly, I learned that doing what you love is the most important thing you can do in life. I hope you all learn the same things while you’re having the best time of your life “¦ so far.

Josh Currie graduated from Trinity in 2010.