First of all, if you noticed that I haven’t been around these parts for quite some time, it’s not my fault.

But, I’ll try not to get all bitter on you, so instead I’ll just shut my mouth before a certain opinion editor smushes me into the pavement.

And now back to our regularly scheduled show.

It’s often a difficult and rough journey walking down the hard path towards a college degree. At least it has been for me.

Just last week I was preparing to give it all up. I wanted to do an about-face and turn my back on college.

I guess my journey has given me one too many blisters and I had started to question whether or not all the hurdles I have been finding in my way are worth passing. I began to think that maybe when I finally was handed my diploma after all my hard work that everything I had struggled through would in the end not be worth the effort.

Maybe after all the years of trying to keep awake in my classes, staying up late to write lengthy papers and dealing with some of the most impossible professors I wouldn’t be able to get a good job in the field of journalism.

Maybe I wouldn’t even get one at all. So I had to wonder what I’m doing here.

I had recently encountered a former Iowa State graduate from the journalism department while I was in Des Moines on an assignment for ethos magazine.

However, I did not meet this man while visiting a major newspaper and he was not a big time editor or even a full time employee of any publication.

Sadly enough, I instead met him as he whipped together for me a mocha latte at a downtown coffee stand.

Hmm…

He was actually once an editor at the ISU Daily. He managed to finally graduate from ISU with a journalism degree and now he has to serve coffee part time to make ends meet.

And so I am still wondering why I am spending thousands of dollars each semester to be a journalism major when I’ll probably end up working at some job totally unrelated to my years of study and maybe even have to moonlight as a part time waiter just so I can earn enough money to make the minimum payments on my college loans.

But perhaps I am taking things just a bit too seriously.

A very intelligent friend of mine once wrote to me some intensely wise words which went precisely like this: Life changes. The fun is dealing with it.

Those words really say a lot if you think about it.

I guess that it could mean nothing is really all too predictable, and so it’s impossible to know what’s going to happen after each one of us graduates.

And because of that we shouldn’t stress out about the future, but rather take each day as it comes and enjoy the unpredictability of every single hour we have in our lives.

I know a lot of people who are constantly getting totally stressed out about being in college and wondering in which direction they are headed.

But it’s really not something to get all frazzled over. Instead, concentrate on making the best of where you are.

I had to ponder my friend’s optimistic philosophizing after wondering if getting through college would bring me closer to my idea of success.

After some careful analyzation I realized that it doesn’t really matter what happens in the future as long as I am having fun doing it.

Making the best out of life should be a priority placed above all others. If a person is able to have a good time in even some of the most undesirable conditions, then in my eyes he or she has mastered the art of living.

Perhaps the man working at the coffee stand is totally happy with what he is doing, and maybe it’s not that big of a deal to him that he is not a highly paid editor. If so, I’d rather be in his shoes than those of an unhappy millionaire.

Even though at times college seems totally unworthwhile, I’ll keep getting over the hurdles and trudge into the uncertain future.

Granted I don’t have a clue if I’ll be working at a coffee stand one day or if I’ll have my dream job in journalism, but I think I can handle the uncertainty.

There’s a lot to look forward to in the days to come to be happy about. Take the sound of dead leaves crunching beneath our feet, or getting to wear warm flannels on chilly days or even standing outside during the first snowfall.

Not everything has to be set in stone. In the end, after we’re all dead, what’s really going to matter is how enjoyable our lives were, not how predictable they were.

With that in mind, I’m off to go play outside.

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Aaron Barstow is … (this is your turn to play! please fill in the blank.)