I was not depressed in college. Nope, not I. It was perfectly normal for a young woman, living on her own for the first time, to spend 3 days in the same pink and white polka dot pajamas. The most nutritious diet in the world, as everyone should know, is indeed Coca Wheats, Easy Mac and Cheese, and OJ. Why, that covers the most important food groups: chocolate, starches, and sugar. Oh, and as far as entertainment goes, there is no show in comparison to the wheel spinning action on "The Price is Right."

The best thing about not being depressed, was freaking my two room mates out! They were insufferable Super Christians anyway. So quick to tell me how destitute I had become, yet incapable of acknowledging their own sinful hypocrisy. Three times a week, they went to the contemporary worship services, and went on long walks in the woods with the Super Christian young men in the wee hours of the morning. My one room mate professed to be a virgin, yet regularly slept next to her latest boy toy in lingerie more daring than any of Victoria's secrets. The other, also a virgin though I believed her, stopped kissing her boyfriend at one point because it was "too much passion to share with anyone other than her husband." Yet, I was the one in trouble?

After a few weeks of my experience in doing nothing, it was time to do something. I had neglected my studies to the point that it was either I get up, shower, and go to class, or resign myself to failing for the semester. To be truthful, my professors had already given up on the idea that I could even pass. Ha! Silly teachers, all I needed was an "A" or "B" on all assignments until the end of the semester and I would have a "C." They were mightily shocked to see a young Freshman student fly in the face of their experience: a student who went MIA for 3 weeks, and didn't turn in a single assignment, never came back to complete the rest of the assignments in the top 10% of the class!

I learned a great deal when I wasn't depressed in college... the value of doing nothing. You see, I completed a high pressure high school curriculum, always the girl with a nose in the book. I never partied. I never was out past curfew. I was so uptight, I needed to break! My first two weeks of college were the largest disappointment in my life. The students were worse than in high school- teasing and taunting those who completed the reading assigned- and unlike high school I lived in the same building with them! There was no escape but into the recesses of my own mind. I happily took that vacation, and didn't look back.

Once I realized I could get away with doing absolutely nothing for 3 weeks, it dawned on me "I could get away with doing anything..." It took until the following semester to find a balance, between completing assignments, and relaxing my own perfection standards. Although, now I am graduated with my Bachelor's Degree, I know that piece of paper doesn't mean anything lofty like I learned how to teach myself (I already knew that) or I am now well-rounded in my liberal arts education (again, thank you honors high school). No, that framed diploma over my desk reminds me how wonderful as experience it is to wallow in your own self-pity, and to make your own escape route from the din.

Learn more about this author, Elizabeth Ann West.
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