Exist or Live?

How much can a person get out of life?  Is there a limit?  And if so, should we focus on some things and not on others?  What would you want out of life?  After breaking up into small groups of four, we thought about some of this.  But instead of thinking about things like a successful job or making a lot of money, we thought about what we were doing right now and why.  Two of the people in our group played sports- one soccer, the other football.  Why?  Because they enjoyed it; it made them happy.  It connected them with friends and forces you to challenge yourself every time.  So what would we want out of life?  Happiness, friends that care about you, and challenges that test our ability (and the feeling of triumph when we succeed).

How can college help you achieve this ultimate end?  College provides the experiences to help us realize what we want.  It helps us learn more about ourselves, who we are, and what makes us happy.  We go to college because statistics tell us that we're more likely to be successful if we have a degree, but there are jobs that don't require one.  However, if you go to college and decide you don't like that job, you still have experience in other areas, so you could try to start another, completely different career without having to start completely over.  So why Drake?  If you take Drake's mission statement, and take all the italicized parts (on the sheet of paper- 'exceptional learning environment', 'meaningful personal lives', 'professional accomplishments', and 'responsible global citizenship'), we felt that those were most people's loose definition of success itself.  If all the things line up, one would likely go above and beyond, trying to take full advantage.  And that makes a lot of sense to me and what I would like out of my college career, but in order to do this, I have to be comfortable in my environment through learning and being able to ask questions.