It’s that time of year again. Graduation. All the people that have served their time and are now up for parole are scurrying around, renting the caps and gowns, cutting their hair, and sweating about finding a job. For lots of these people, graduation is heaven-sent. For others, it’s the one thing they never thought they’d see, and now that it’s here, man oh man, it’s an alarm clock with no snooze button.

I started college four years ago, and I am nowhere near graduating. If I were New York, graduation would be Japan. For all the other students that took a break, or screwed up and flunked out, or changed majors a gazillion times, the four-year thing is just plain BS. This can be very frustrating, especially if you’re sick and tired of being broke. But witnessing various friends of mine amid the hustle and bustle of graduation, man oh man, am I glad I’m taking my time.

Seeing many of my friends coming and going, here and then gone, I recently got to think about what college really is, besides ungodly expensive. And look, I’m even using the analytical skills that I’ve acquired here at ISU to do it.

College, I’ve decided, is not only about getting schooled in academia, it’s about also about learning what it means to screw up, bite it, blow it. It’s about throwing a monkey wrench in your own engine and getting your own hands dirty to get it out. And being in college for four years, I know a lot of people with a lot of monkey wrenches and I’ve seen a lot of dirty hands, including my own.

College is the life. Working part time, no true commitments or responsibilities, no obligations. All the time in the world to travel, fall in and out of love, stumble in and out of parties. I honestly think it would be a mistake to disregard these things as an integral part of college life. In fact, I’m willing to wager that these are the most important parts of it.

So here we are, the five-, six- and seven-year wanderers, wondering why the hell we’re not in line for a degree. Well, we’ve come to terms with the fact that, for some, the four-year thing is a big, fat, jolly lie. It’s the four-year myth, and we’ve embraced it. We love it. And we’re taking our sweet time. No hair cuts yet, no need for a new wardrobe, no pressure to get eight hours of sleep a night. No pressure at all.

For the kids that actually know what they want to do, find a major they enjoy, a school they can handle, go for it. Go all the way. But for some people, finding those things might not be so easy. And that’s okay. Youth only comes once in a lifetime.

None of us entered a machine that would tuck, pluck and suck our minds into “market-ready-and-willing” participants. All the tucking, plucking and sucking is left up to the individual.

College is not something that gets done to you, it’s something that each of us does. We make it, we break it.

So if it takes some individuals a little longer to figure out what to tuck, pluck and suck, good for them.

Take the time to do the right thing. Embrace the four-year myth; in the long run, it’ll do everyone some good.

If you’ve suffered all the tucking, plucking and sucking you can stand, get the hell out of here. Flip this place the bird. But baby, don’t you cut your hair.

There is no definite formula of what college is for each person, but more often than not, it should been seen as the prime of your life. This is the time when we get to screw up and can still blame it on youth.

This is also the time we can over-achieve and be hailed as young wonders. Whatever floats your boat. Just do it the way you want to do it. College rocks. Take time to enjoy it.

Bliss Newton is a junior in English literature and women’s studies from Ames.