Patience is a virtue

In a world where everything is instant, the idea of delayed gratification seems foreign.
The life of a college student in the year 2010 is anything BUT slow paced. We have the whole world at our fingertips, delivered to us via smart phones and iPads.
Have a question? Google it on your iPhone and within seconds you'll have the answer.
We are growing up in an age where we aren't expected to wait for things. Socializing, researching, communicating; it is all made easy with 4G services and highspeed internet.
So if this is the case, how are college students supposed to get used to the idea of delayed gratification?
The marshmallow experiment is easy for us to understand. Wait 15 minutes and avoid the temptation of instant gratification, and receive a better award. Easy enough.
But as a college student, we are faced with these situations everyday without truly realizing it.
Do I study for an extra hour and get a better grade on my exam? Or do I compromise my grade in order to hang out and have some fun with my friends?
This type of situation occurs all the time, which is why it is so important for college students to grasp the idea of delayed gratification.
In a sense we must undo what society and technology has been teaching us. Instant and easy is not always better. We do not need everything right now. We can be patient. We can work towards something important. We have complete control over ourselves.
For college students surrounded by the ideas of instant and "NOW!", delayed gratification is probably the most important concept that can be learned.