With Freedom in Our Hands
Written by Aarya Mahapatra. Graphic by Aarya Mahapatra.
There’s a quiet magic in being a college student, one that often goes unnoticed in the blur of deadlines, sleepless nights, and huge expectations. We spend so much time running towards an ideal future that we forget the sheer power we hold in the present: our free will. The freedom to choose, to explore, to feel, to become.
To live fully in college isn’t about spontaneous plans or academic achievements. It’s about leaning into the simple pleasures, the kind you might miss if you’re only looking at your to-do list. It’s walking under the Spanish moss in Forsyth Park, stopping and noticing the numerous squirrels. It’s watching the same strangers pass and wondering about the lives they lead. It’s feeling the stones of River Street beneath your shoes and realizing how many footsteps came before yours and how many will follow.
You are not yet rooted and settled in place, and that’s a gift. You can walk into a restaurant you’ve never been to before, talk to someone you see every day, try an activity you’ve never tried, and write a poem even if you think you’re not a writer. You can say yes to a midnight drive to Tybee Island just for the experience or no to something that doesn’t feel true to you. Every decision, small or big, is a word in the story of your youth.
You are surrounded by moments waiting to be lived if only you allow yourself to slow down and reach for them.
You can buy a plant and give it a name like “Stuart” and have full conversations with it. You can eat dessert for breakfast and call it a celebration of your independence. You can dress up in full costume on a random Tuesday and tell everyone it’s for “personal reasons.”
These unfiltered decisions are what give color to your days. They’re the moments you’ll laugh about years from now when you’re older and maybe a little more “normal” (but hopefully not too normal). Because sometimes the most freeing thing is to do something that makes absolutely no sense except that it makes you happy.
But the most important choice you can make is this: to honor your life by living it. Not just working, not just surviving, but truly, unapologetically living. That means making space for joy, curiosity, creation and even sadness when it comes. It means letting yourself be changed by the world and also daring to change it in small, quiet ways.
So, while you’re here, while you’re young, brave and full of questions, choose to see more. Laugh louder. Fall harder. Get up stronger. Walk to class instead of taking the bus. Talk to the owner of the dog you always pet. Be kinder than necessary. Let people in. Let yourself out.
Because one day, years from now, you’ll look back at this chapter of your life. You’ll remember not just the grades you got or the internships you landed but the way you danced in the rain on a random Tuesday. And you’ll be glad, so glad, that you didn’t let it all rush past you.
College isn’t just a stepping stone to the future. It’s a sacred, fleeting season. Let your free will be the compass that leads you not just toward success but toward wonder. Let this be the place where you truly begin to live.
And above all, never forget: your life is your own, and it’s worth living deeply.
