Going to college is a monumental moment in every teenager’s life. Finally being on your own after eighteen years of living with your family is often an extremely liberating experience. While we all miss the home-cooked meals, not always having to do our own laundry, and especially our pets, being able to go out with no curfews and having more control of when we go to bed and do homework is an experience that many college freshmen can’t appreciate enough.
However, one of the side effects that comes along with having no parental guidance and crazy busy schedules is that in order to take care of ourselves, we resort to lifestyle choices that were dominant while we were in pre-school. Here are six ways that becoming a college student has turned all of us back into toddlers.
1. Naptime ranges anywhere from 1pm to 11pm.
Whether it's a 20-minute power nap between classes or six hours long after a day party, our sleep schedules are very similar to toddlers who also have no sense of appropriate times to sleep.
2. We wake up whenever we want, usually after staying up way too late or falling asleep way too early.
Especially when you have a late class or it's the weekend.
3. A tiny cup of cheap noodles is enough to satisfy hunger.
Ramen doesn't taste half bad and is very easy to afford -- two qualities that are hard to come by in college.
4. We never have any money, but we cost our parents a fortune.
Credit and debit cards are almost always running low, and cash is impossible to keep track of. And with tuition ranging from expensive to super expensive, our parents' wallets still haven't gotten a break since we were toddlers.
5. We always wish we were just a few years older.
As a little kid, I would always want to be seven years old so I could get my own ID card at the rec center. Now, we all just can't wait to turn 21 for almost the same reason.
6. We either call our parents to ask for money or to complain about things they probably don’t understand.
Similar to how toddlers yell out to their parents in times of distress, we have phones to do basically the same thing in college.
In high school, it wasn’t so easy to sleep whenever I wanted -- I had the same 9am to 4pm schedule everyday, and I had extra-curricular activities afterwards that would prevent me from ever taking an oddly-timed nap. I would never resort to cheap ramen noodles because my pantry and fridge were always stocked with the best food, thanks to my mom; and it was always easy to get some cash from my parents to see a movie or go to dinner.
Sometimes, I think we were all a little more adult-like in high school than we are now, but the main difference is that we’re actually expected to be adults in college.
