The jig is up. All these years I’ve been working for Pipe Dream, I never actually realized that people read my columns. And certainly not the people who ‘inspire’them. No no, these people most definitely are not supposed to read columns about them. Sheesh, I mean, as much as I like the idea of my columns making an impression on someone, they’re not always designed to speak to their subjects.

But this circumstantial epiphany of my readership did trigger the realization that college helps us grow up, in a really nice friendly way, if we let it. This is because college helps us to figure out the best parts of ourselves that we want to keep young and change the parts of ourselves that reflect our inner, selfish immaturities. Generally, this takes place because of the people we meet. We spend time in college with college people. And we apply these changes to our professional goals and ambitions.

Once in a while, we go on little field trips to reality. We spend time out of college with college people. And then we drive back to Binghamton University. But along this drive ‘home,’ it starts to feel like college is reality and this brief stretch in the real world is more like the bubble. It is the most grown up realization you can have when home becomes people. But this throws all my previous theories about the cursed month of May into a bit of quagmire.

What happens in May has less and less to do with geography or job offers, and more about who’s involved in those circumstances. I know a few people (who have been nagging me for this column for a really long time, although I would imagine they were picturing something quite different) who started a small advertising project at Bing. All currently planning on business-related careers post college, they put together a discount card.

This ‘Student Connect’ project gives breaks and deals to students at all kinds of local haunts. It is a legitimate, successful business that students get something out of. The business name is appropriate; there is a connection with this card. These guys merged their future choices with their college world. It’s a business venture built on both friendship and practicality; students cutting students a financial break and building their own funds and resumes in the process. But the card isn’t really the only point.

The point is that maybe it’s not ‘either or.’ College may be finished for many in a few months. And yes, some kind of lifestyle shift is inevitable. But if a bunch of frat boys can bring the real world to Binghamton, why can’t we bring Binghamton to the real world? I always thought this universe had to end. But the truth is that it just has to grow, not necessarily up, but in any direction.

We meet people in college that we are generally not ready for. It’s the downfall of finding amazing individuals and then fooling yourself into thinking that change means giving them up. We’re terrified, so we push away and make excuses. We are banking on something better, easier or less complicated coming along eventually. We fret over details and use dates as justifications for our diction.

But at the end of it, we make our own realities. Like a business concept; college, Binghamton, jobs, hanging out – can be mixed together any way you want them. It doesn’t have to change to the point of being scary, but it can evolve to the point of being happy.

– Nora Slonimsky is a junior English and history major and is assistant Opinion editor. Michael Riess Rosenzweig has exceptional taste in T-shirts. Brian Liebert is great at smash. And Jeremy, the minister of ‘ you’re the coolest cucumber. Or koala. Or monkey.