I’ll be the first to say it, I hate college. I hate school through and through. Hate is a strong word, so that’s why I’m using it and I’m sure whether you’re willing to admit it or not, some part of you hates it too.
All through high school, we watched our older siblings and friends go off to college and come back during breaks to rave about their adventures with their new friends and freshly adopted liberal mindset. It looks so great, joining sororities, going to parties in cute outfits, studying hard and learning lots of new and exciting things. What could possibly be bad about that?
I never had a doubt in my mind that I’d go to college. I knew I would go off and get a great degree and meet great friends, and become this great and interesting person, just like what everyone else did. But I soon realized after getting my ass dropped off at the curb of my dorm that as promising as this establishment was, there is an unreal amount of false advertising surrounding this four-year experience.
"Wasn’t this supposed to be great?", I thought to myself as I slaved away for a “C” in Finite Mathematics. People forget that college means school, and really shitty school at that. My experience thus far has been the most trying and depressing endeavor I have been through. This is actually so screwed up, because I shouldn’t feel like I’m on the verge of tears every Sunday night knowing I have to tackle another week of classes just to get a piece of paper after jumping through all of the university's red tape.
On top of classes, making friends isn’t as easy as it seems. Friendships take a ton of time so that’s just another thing on the plate to tend to. Greek life is a topic for another day, but that’s another aspect of college that has a very real possibility to let you down. I would definitely say having a positive mindset is a helpful resource, along with a good support system, but when it comes down to it, going to college does not make me happy.
Getting drunk on the weekends gets old, going on late night Noodle & Co. runs make that college weight gain happen faster, and staying up doing homework isn’t glamorous or healthy, so that’s just a stupid aspect of college people glorify for whatever reason. Another huge overlooked facet of college is the amounts of false social media coverage students throw out onto the interwebs. No one has that much fun in a frat basement, so don’t get fooled by the posts, and the pictures and Snapchats are generally posted before things get shambly. It’s really easy to feel like shit about your lacking social life when you see how much fun other people are pretending to have. But don’t worry, rest assured I hate it just as much as you do.
The pressure to go party and have a grand ole time, maintain a great GPA, and snag those killer internships every summer is pressure that’s hard to describe just because it’s so real and feels so impossible. So next time someone asks you if you like college, it’s okay to say no. It’s okay to say hell no because not everyone enjoys college and it’s unrealistic to try to embody the “ultimate college experience” like so many other students do.
