College is often framed in two contradictory ways: a stepping stone to adulthood and “the best years of your life.” Students will often swing between the two, while others cling to either extreme, treating these four years as a non-stop highlight reel or treating them like a pre-professional boot camp.

College is a marathon, not a sprint. Graduation is the clear finish line, but the way we run the race of college — the goals, risks, joys — is what gives the finish line meaning.

At USC, like every other college, it’s incredibly easy to fall into autopilot. You go to class, maybe join a club or two, find a group of friends and then let the semesters blur together, all with graduation in mind. However, this comfort and blur can become a trap. College is one of the few times in our lives when trying new things is the expectation, not the exception. Where else can you join a ballet class with no prior experience as a pre-med student?

Yet, so many of us hesitate and take this luxury for granted, worrying about being embarrassed or wasting time.

Getting involved in activities — whether on or off campus — is how we set mini finish lines along the way. Trying out for the club tennis team, running for student government, rushing a frat or sorority, or even writing for the Daily Trojan all become checkpoints that break these four years into smaller arcs. Each of these moments is more than just a line for your resume — they’re tests of confidence, resilience and curiosity.

Of course, there is a strong case for tunnel vision. College is expensive, and USC’s tuition alone costs more than $73,000 a year — before rent, textbooks and the cost of simply living in Los Angeles. For students working jobs to stay afloat, or for families stretching their paychecks, it makes sense to approach these four years with blinders on, focusing only on the degree at the end.

However, here’s the problem: When you focus solely on work and classes, you overlook a significant portion of the education you’re paying for. The classroom is only half of the learning; the other half happens outside it. In every risk you take, every person you meet or every community you join. Failure to acknowledge this is to pay for only half of the experience.

That’s why stepping outside your comfort zone matters. Yes, friends and routines make campus life manageable, but growth only happens when you break that pattern. The student who attends a meeting alone or pursues a new hobby is the one who crosses the graduation stage with stories to tell, not just boxes checked.

Mini goals will also make the big goals less intimidating. Graduation can feel like a distant, abstract endpoint, especially for first-year students who can barely survive a lower-division course.

Setting those smaller markers — finishing a tough course, learning how to play a new instrument, making it through your first internship — along the way gives you momentum. They serve as proof that you’re not just waiting for the four years to end but actively shaping them and treating them like 1460 days.

Shaping these years is, of course, easier said than done.

Between balancing midterms, internship applications and coursework, college may come off like one seemingly long — but short — stressful test. Joy and satisfaction, however, don’t always come from perfection; they may come simply from presence.

It’s those late-night conversations while walking home after a club meeting, and the nervous excitement of entering a room full of complete strangers. If you spend four years waiting for the moment you walk across the stage, you’ll miss the thousands of moments that make that walk matter.

College isn’t just about learning, and graduation isn’t just about earning a degree. It’s about closing a chapter you had all the chance to write. Whether you filled those pages with risk, involvement or growth — or comfort and avoidance — is up to you. The diploma will be the same no matter what, but the story behind it changes everything.

So the task is simple: step out of your comfort zone. Join the club, run for the position, write the article, sign up for the trip — make those mini goals. Not because these goals will look good on a resume, but because they’ll make the finish line feel that much better.

College is four years, and as a first-semester senior, let me say they will pass faster than you expect. The only question is whether you let them pass by, or whether you run the race knowing you did everything you could and cross the line with more than just a piece of paper in hand.