My time’s up. After seven semesters and 125 credit hours, it’s time to receive my degree and step out of SMU and into the “real world.”

Filling out job applications, learning about employee benefits, realizing that my parents could not be more ready to cut me off and knowing that it’s my responsibility alone to get all this done has made me think about the concept of time.

My time at SMU. The many times I made huge mistakes. The time it took for me to learn the lessons of those mistakes. The time I’ve used productively, and not so productively. The times I’ll always cherish and the ones I’d rather forget. The last time I’ll get to use a student discount. And the time that lies ahead of me.

It took no time at all for me to choose to attend SMU. The beauty of the campus just a short distance from my home in Austin, scholarships awarded to me, great faculty-to-student ratio and promise of a strong education attracted me in an instant. I couldn’t be happier about my decision to attend this university four years ago.

I can’t say the same about some choices since that decision, however. I don’t think it would be an overgeneralization to say that any college graduate could present a long list of mistakes and lessons learned in just four years. Here’s my top three:

Everyone makes mistakes, will likely commit them repeatedly and will continue to make them. Forever. The trick is to learn from those mistakes and forgive others.

Learning to prioritize and balance your life is the key to survival and success.

And everything is OK. Breathe. You know those moments when you thought your whole world was going to end? Have you noticed how it never has? Everything is OK.

For me, those lessons have a recurrent theme of time: its value, importance and inherently juggernaut-like character.

When I met with my adviser last spring to plan my final year at SMU which turned out to be only a last semester, I was reminded of the limitedness of time. When there’s a limited supply of something, it has a high value. Students, even the most advanced economics majors, forget this.

To respect the value of your own time, there has to be balance. Although a primary responsibility of a student is studying, an innate human responsibility is the right to pursue happiness. I’ve always considered myself well balanced by keeping up with studies, playing an instrument, participating in athletics and having a social life. However, I can vouch that even the most balanced student can be caught off guard by the curveball of independence and personal responsibility thrown by college.

There’s the student in your literature class who is never prepared when called on or whose seat is always empty. There’s the student who blows your mind when they say they’ve never attended a Boulevard or enjoyed a night out at Homebar.

Countless times in my four years here I’ve been called out in class for not paying attention or had to explain to a teacher why my assignment was late for no legitimate reason. I’ve felt left out of a social circle for missing events, big and small, because of academic responsibilities. I don’t think my friends will ever grasp the fact that I had work at The Daily Campus late every Thursday night this semester and that’s why they “never” saw me out.

But, eventually, I learned to prioritize and focus on balance in my life. Some nights call for watching the sunrise through a window in Fondren Library, but there’s nothing wrong with putting academics on hold to enjoy a night out with friends.

Procrastination sometimes tilted my life off balance. While procrastination is often related to assignments, essays and class work, it can invade all parts of your life. I’ll pay the parking ticket tomorrow, which turns into three weeks and now the fee has doubled. I’ll apologize to my friend when I see her next, by which point she’s only become angrier. I’ll call my parents Sunday, by which time you can tell from their voices they wish you had called earlier.

To keep your life on balance you have to keep up with time, and it stops for no one. If you mess up, don’t dwell on it; fix it. If you’re driving yourself crazy with studies, take a night off. Everything is OK.

As a student, trying to balance my own time, I often forgot about the importance of other people’s time. In my last semester, as I’ve grown closer with a few of my teachers and advisers, I’ve realized just how important time is to knowledge and wisdom. In just four years on my own (sort of), I’ve learned a lot of lessons. I’ve received invaluable advice from my elders at SMU, who have had much more time to learn and experience than I have. It’s important to respect what time has provided to those who have had much more than you.

With that realization in mind, I’m also optimistic about the time ahead of me. As my peers and I finish up our senior years, the phrase “This is the last time we are going to…” is unavoidable. However, the future holds a lot of “This will be the first time I get to…”

Ahead of me is my first day of work, professional bylines, real world responsibilities and everything else Father Time is ready to throw at me.

The “best four years of my life” was cut short by early graduation, but my time is far from over. It kept going after each mistake I thought would end it. With a degree and the lessons I’ve learned during my time at SMU, I’m moving forward.

Tick-tock.

Roden is a senior majoring in journalism and Spanish.