As the first year of college comes to a close, take a minute to rewind four years and remember the first year of high school. Some days it feels like yesterday we were sitting in homeroom on the first day waiting to hear our name called. Other days it seems like freshman biology was a lifetime ago. Sure both years we were Freshman, but high school freshman year is way different from college freshman year.
Scheduling
High School Freshman Year
The August before high school started you wait impatiently every morning for the mailman to come with prayers your schedule would arrive that day. When it does, you see 9 classes you have virtually no choice over, with room numbers you have no idea the locations of. You quickly snap a picture on your env3 and send it to your friends to figure out what classes you have together.
College Freshman Year
The August before college you spend days reading the course listings and class descriptions and putting about 50 classes you wanted into your enrollment shopping cart. You wait impatiently for your registration time and when it comes you frantically try to enroll in your top choice classes only to get into one of them. You end up with History of the Wheel and Latin 101 and have no idea what to do about it. Maybe they have guidance counselors in college you can go to once you get there?
First Day of School
High School Freshman Year
Before the first day of freshman year in high school, you spent hours at the mall with your friends finding a killer first-day outfit. Your alarm goes off at 6 a.m. and you spend an hour straightening your hair and making sure you look perfect. You hop on the bus, walking into the lobby full of seniors screaming in your face. You’re scared but immediately find your best friend and feel better. You manage to find your lockers and homerooms and make it through the day surrounded by faces you’ve seen since kindergarten.
College Freshman Year
You spend your first days on campus before classes begin trying to navigate this massive new world. You think you know where the buildings your classes are in are. The first day of classes you wake up to 85-degree weather since it’s still August. Gross. You get ready in 20 minutes so you have time to find your building. Was it Coker Hall or Carolina Hall?
Football Games
High School Freshman Year
Finally, you can go to your high school football teams as an actual high school student. You sit in the student bleachers for the first time; you feel so grown up. At the first game, you’re taken aback by the kind of language you hear on this side of the stands, and is that kid doing dip?! You think maybe sitting with your parents wasn’t so bad. But by the end of the season, you’ve got these Friday night games down pat and you go have fun with the rest of your friends after the game ends. No wonder everyone loves football season, even if your team lost every game.
College Freshman Year
It takes you just a week to realize that football games here are an all day event. And no, a sweatshirt with your school’s name is not acceptable attire. Girls fill the bleachers in sundresses, big earrings, and perfect hair. The parties are before the game now so no one gets in until halftime and most people leave before it’s over. It’s not about the actual football game anymore, it’s all about the social scene, but you’re okay with that.
Studying
High School Freshman Year
You can breeze through most of your classes with little to no effort. Maybe you’ll look over your notes for 45 minutes the night before a test. Plus you have a test every Friday so each one is worth about 5 percent of your grade, no big deal. This five-page research paper in English seems like a death sentence, but you have class time to work on it too so maybe it’s not so bad.
College Freshman Year
You realize with only three tests in the semester each one actually matters… sh*t. How does someone actually study? Do you just reread your notes? Make flashcards? Read the textbook? You spend hours the night before the exam (they're not called tests anymore) trying to figure out how to remember 5 weeks worth of material. You have to buy your own scantron; you can’t believe they make you pay to take a test. You get it back 3 weeks later and get a B. You don’t get B’s. But then the professor says the class average was a C- and you feel a little bit better.
Your Wardrobe
High School Freshman Year
You convince your mom to take you shopping within the first week of school because your clothes are too “middle school.” You have to have the latest trends, straightest hair, and there is no such thing as too much eyeliner am I right? You hit the halls using your Michael Kors bag as a backpack since you have barely any books to carry. You try to get away with not changing for gym by wearing converse on gym days-those count as sneakers right? You’re not afraid to wear your Uggs on rainy days because you’re only walking from the bus right into the school. Nothing can stop you from looking your best.
College Freshman Year
You start the year thinking you’ll dress cute because people still notice what you wear. Wrong. A month in and you realize no one in your classes takes any notice of what you look like. This is good news for you because you can stick to your yoga pants and sweatshirt style. Convert to gym shorts and a t-shirt in the spring. You love not having to do your hair because every minute of sleeping the morning is precious. You wear sneakers every day because you have to walk a mile to your classes. You hate when it rains because that means a 20-minute walk under your umbrella. You find yourself buying clothes from the school store just so you don’t have to do laundry, but hey you can never have too much college apparel.
Snow Days
High School Freshman Year
The night before a big storm you stare at the television screen praying you see your school’s name come rolling across the bottom. THERE IT IS! Woo! Proceed to stay up late watching movies, sleep in until noon, go sledding with your friends, come into Mom making hot chocolate, and spend the rest of the night stress-free.
College Freshman Year
The night before a big storm you pray you’ll get the email that classes are canceled. THERE IT IS! Woo! Wait. There’s another one from your professor saying your paper is still due tomorrow, but now to submit it through email. And another one from another professor saying she’s uploading a video lecture you need to watch. And another one from a different professor saying he’s putting a quiz up online that will be worth 10% of your grade. Somehow you now have more work than you would if classes weren’t canceled. Plus you have no food in your room so you’re going to have to brave the snow and make the 10 minutes trek to the dining hall if you don’t want to starve to death. Maybe you shouldn't have prayed so hard.
The End of the Year
High School Freshman Year
You did it. You survived your first year of high school. You have learned so much about the world, life, and who you are. You have a solid set of best friends and are excited to spend the summer with them. You feel like you have the world at your fingertips and can accomplish anything. You’re looking forward to no longer being at the bottom of the social ladder, but you loved your freshman year. Nothing is better than high school.
College Freshman Year
You did it. You survived your first year of college. You have learned things about the world, life, and yourself that you didn’t even know you didn’t know. You have survived being apart from your best friends for the first time in your lives and you cannot wait to be reunited for the next three months. You have also met some new best friends that you can’t imagine living without for the summer. You are looking forward to coming back next August now that you have this whole college thing figure out, but for now, you’re more than ready to go home.
