I remember the first day I left home to begin a life changing journey of college, and I also remember the first time I returned home from college to tell stories of my new experiences. I remember immediately feeling a shift in my viewpoint of the things and people that were once a norm to me, and I also remember battling with continuing some habits versus changing them. People view this "change" as a problem or college student's attempt to act "better" than those who didn't leave home for college. It's not that we think we are better than anyone. We are simply enduring many mental, social, and physical intersections that can often be overbearing.
College is not just a sweet vacation from home encompassed with long nights of partying and short days of work. Most of us that attend institutions with prestigious reputations are forced to live life a little more stress filled and fast paced. We are either working hard to maintain our grade point average, volunteering to get familiar with the community, trying to find a job to remain financially stable, or struggling to find where we fit in the world outside of the home environment. All of these factors effect college students differently, which means our responses to each factor varies. Therefore, we may not be as "turnt" or overly engaged as we once were before, since the priorities in our life have changed.
College introduces you to new ways of thinking and forming relationships. We are trained to gain a networking mind frame that is beneficial to our career and personal brand so that we can fulfill social elitism in some of the top corporate businesses of the world. Therefore, home friendships that were initially built from fun evenings and just being crazy soon become less important. It's nothing personal. It's simply reality. No one wants to graduate with college debt and calmly state that they didn't meet new people that have the same career path, can possibly expand their career, or even serve as a mentor. We are surrounded by new ideas that of course alter the initial ways that we may have thought, which isn't a bad thing. It displays the benefits of college and the power there is when an engaged and adventurous mind is engaged with theories and insight.
College also helps college students become more confident in their educational abilities and desire to pass on what we have learned. Failing to exercise our knowledge is sort of a mockery to the college experience. What sense does it make to go into so much debt for education that we don't even care to share? Education is meant to be spread across the masses and there is no such thing as knowing too much when you may know too little. Therefore, exercise of knowledge is not used by some of us to make others feel inferior. It's simply a desire to start a conversation or to get creative juices flowing.
Overall, most college students do not intend to be perceived as superiors when we exercise our education or new ways of thinking. We are simply living a life intersected with our home culture and now our school culture. Plus, we are engaged with much stress, frustration, and overall tiredness. Don't take it personal.
