To say college is nothing like high school would be an understatement. The obvious benefits to college include the freedom to do what you want and when you want to do it. Don't like early mornings? That's not a problem because you can set your schedule to never have morning classes. The longer you're in college, the more absurd high school seems. The real question is, how did we do these things?

1. Go to school at 7 A.M.

At least for me, school started at 7:21 A.M. That meant that by 6:55 A.M., I needed to be leaving my house to account for traffic and make it to class on time. I can barely get out of bed for my 11 A.M. classes. Last semester, I thought my 9:30 A.M. was irrationally early to be sitting in class. I definitely could not wake up at 7 A.M. one morning a week, so how did we do it every morning?

2. Sitting through seven or eight classes in a day

A long day in college consists of having somewhere between two and four classes in a row, or three or more classes in a single day. It's exhausting to have to sit through three hours of class back-to-back. It makes high school sound unreal in comparison. We sat in school for seven hours every day learning in completely unrelated classes.

3. Take classes you didn't want to take

Some colleges have a common core curriculum that requires students to take a larger variety of classes than they might want. However, schools also offer more manageable courses so students who might not like a particular subject have other options. Don't like science? Take biology of food! In high school, everyone had to take the same mandatory course, whether or not they had any interest in it.

4. Wake up an hour (or more) before school to get ready

School at 7 A.M. didn't mean waking up at 6:50 A.M. in those days. It meant waking up at 6 A.M. to shower and spend 20 minutes pondering which sweater would look best with your vest and riding boots. Getting ready for school was a task in high school, which sounds absurd now that you roll out of bed 10 minutes before class (no matter what time of day it is) and arrive in sweatpants.

5. Do your hair and make-up every day

While we're on the topic of getting ready, most girls will agree that doing your hair and makeup every day was the only lifestyle choice in high school. It was only on rare occasions that you showed up with your hair in a ponytail and not even a little concealer or mascara. Makeup and hair styling is now reserved for Friday and Saturday nights.

6. Put effort into picking out your outfits for school

Why did jeans every day sound like a good idea ever? Sure, by senior year, leggings became a part of your "I'm not really trying, but still trying" look, but jeans were still a wardrobe staple. Wearing jeans to class is a once a month thing at best in college. The rest of the time they stay where they belong: in weekend purgatory with make-up and hair-curlers/straighteners.

7. Mandatory exercise in the form of gym class

Every time I am forced to reminisce about the torture that was the mandatory gym volleyball tournament at my school, I am more appalled by the normalcy of dodging spiked volleyballs every other day. Being forced to to sweat (or in my case pretend to do enough activity to sweat) in between classes was stressful and unnecessary.

8. Attend class every day

Five days a week, you sat in all seven or eight of your classes. You were happy on the nights you didn't have homework due the next day. In college, you sit in class twice a week, once if you have a turbo, and rarely have assignments due on the days you don't have class.

9. Worry about missing school

In high school, missing school was more stressful than fun because your notes were not accessible online and your teachers cared if you didn't show up. In college, your professor gives you a maximum of classes you can skip without punishment, giving you the opportunity to miss class without worrying. Also, everything is on blackboard so notes aren't a concern.

10. Stress out over a B in a class

Your grade dropping below a 90 in high school was the equivalent to failing that class. Doing poorly on a test was a death sentence in a class. Your GPA is still important in college, but they don't define you the way they did in high school. Classes feature less tests and more opportunities to do well even if you fail a test that never would have existed in high school.

11. Getting five hours of sleep or less every night

You didn't just wake up at 6 A.M. every morning, but you stayed up until 1 A.M. or later, too. Therefore, you functioned everyday on five hours of sleep. Coffee is a necessity to make it through one hour long class even on seven or more hours of sleep. How we did it every day in high school is an absolute mystery.

12. Never napping

Despite the small amount of sleep you got everyday, napping was never in the schedule with clubs, sports and homework. Now a nap between classes is at least a weekly affair because you have the time, while still being able to go to the gym and finish all of your work.