As a brand-new freshman in college, I’ve had a lot of adjusting to do over the past few months. It’s crazy to think that the first semester is almost already over. It seems like just yesterday I was walking into my tiny dorm room for the first time, listening to my mom gasp and remark about me living in a shoebox for the next nine months. Since those awkward first few days of wandering around doe-eyed and terrified of getting lost, I’ve figured out how to successfully navigate meal points, confusing buildings, and weird late night social situations. Here are a few of the best things I’ve discovered about living the college life:
1. Proximity of Friends
Hanging out with friends in high school always felt like a bit of a hassle. As fun as it was to see them, the effort it took to plan an event that worked around everyone’s schedules and ability to drive was usually more trouble than it was worth. In college, all of your friends are in walking distance, most within the same building. You can’t step outside your door without running into someone, which makes impromptu movie nights and gossip sessions a frequent and natural occurrence.
2. Flexibility of Schedule
With a mandatory start of 7:30am for the last four years, not to mention a legal obligation to be in a classroom for the next eight hours following that, the extreme freedom of classes in college was almost overwhelming. A few days a week, I literally don’t have to be on campus until noon, and the other days where I have 8am classes are made much better by my ability to come back and go back to sleep directly after. Of course, you don’t even have to go to class if you really don’t want to, but the fact that you can take three naps a day if you desire makes it a little hard to justify skipping the two hours of class you do have.
3. Availability of Food
Coming from a high school that had a closed campus lunch policy and nothing close enough to buy anyway, the sheer number of accessible food items surrounding me in college is mind blowing. I feel like I’ll never run out of restaurants to try (it’s slow going anyway with my extremely small amount of cash) and each new place seems like a culinary adventure.
4. Exploring a New Place
Many of us spent the bulk of our childhoods in the same town, talking to the same people, riding our bikes up and down the same streets and exploring every inch of the area we grew up in. College is a delightful escape from this monotony, particularly when your school is in a city with endless interesting shops and side streets. Even the campus itself has tons of old buildings, art, and culture to discover. Everything is unfamiliar and exciting.
5. Diversity of People
Who you go to high school with is mostly determined by who you just happen to be living near. As a result, almost everyone you meet up until college will be a lot like you and your family. All bets are off when you move up to a university, because anyone you meet could be from anywhere in the world. All of a sudden, you’re surrounded by people with completely different experiences than you and this makes for some great material for late night story telling and gaining a new perspective on life. The best part is when you discover similarities you share with someone so completely different from you in every other way.
6. Exclusive, FREE events
There’s always something happening on a college campus, whether it’s a comedy show or a dance performance, and waving your magic ticket of a student ID can get you in for free or a very low price almost anywhere. High school football games and the occasional play just don’t hold the same luster.
7. Free stuff
Sunglasses, water bottles, frisbees, t-shirts, pumpkin pie, pens, plastic bears, books, headphones, umbrellas, ponchos: a short list of some of the items my friends and I have received completely free since getting here. Since people are constantly trying to promote their clubs and organizations, the availability of free everything is off the charts in college. On the contrary, it was considered a good day in high school if your teacher handed out stale tootsie pops as a fun surprise.
8. Free time
A flexible schedule allows for quite a bit of random down time. Plus, the fact that everything is so close means anytime you would’ve spent driving to get somewhere in your hometown is now time you have on your hands for whatever you like. Usually this means Netflix and food runs, but it can also mean exploring a new hobby or getting to know someone better. Or, you know, watching all the seasons of Friends for the fourth time. Whatever.
9. Academic opportunities
Ah, finally what we all actually came to college for: homework. No, but seriously, this may be one of the most frustrating but also coolest parts of college: endless academic challenges. Nothing comes easy anymore and anything you found hard in high school is amplified by ten here. But, that being said, I still have to put it on the list when I remember why I was so excited to get into college in the first place. Here’s our chance as students to stretch ourselves and be the best we can be. As cheesy as it sounds, we were never going to reach our full potential when our time was taken up by busy work and easy A classes. In college, we’ll definitely struggle, and we might even fail a few times, but at least we can say we’re pushing ourselves and take comfort in the fact that we’re here to learn and we got in for a reason.
There are certainly days I miss the simplicity of daily class, busy work and the same familiar faces, but the new experiences vastly outweigh the old. I’ll always look back fondly on my four years in high school, but I’m extremely excited to see what these next four years of college might bring.
