We’ve seen movies or TV shows depicting a college experience—fraternities/sororities, parties, drinking, dancing, tailgating, sporting events—all of which are part of the college experience, but only one side.
Being a college student isn’t as fun as mainstream media may portray it. Sure, we all go out drinking or go to parties, but there’s only so much time that you can invest in that over the course of the week with everything else that goes on.
First and foremost there is class. The goal of going to college is earning a degree so you can find a job. You will not get your degree if you don’t pass classes, and although you may be able to pass some classes without going, you’re better off going. Basically, if you don’t go to class, you won’t get a degree.
With class comes the politics—professors playing favorites—as well as religiously following the syllabus to keep up with the millions of assignments and deadlines you must keep up with, and that’s just for one class. Multiply that by five and that’s why our planners/calendars are color coded and we make to-do lists that are pages long.
And with a full course-load comes all of the homework. Hundreds of pages of reading, notes, and papers spanning the length of the semester. Group projects are part of the reason why we have trust issues—putting our grade in the hands of our group is stressful. And let’s be honest, every single group has that one person that is like a ball and chain that the rest of the group has to drag along and work harder to compensate for.
So yes, we may stay up late most nights, but most of them are spent either in our rooms or in the library studying and doing assignments into the wee hours of the night. And those nights that we do happen to go out, we try to forget about the long to-do list that is waiting for us and just try to enjoy ourselves, maybe one weekday and of course the weekend. We can put our stresses aside and enjoy ourselves (and maybe drink some of our worries away).
Besides class, homework and parties, there are other aspects of a social life on campus. You may be a part of one or many clubs/organizations and therefore must also fit meetings and events into your schedule. If you play a sport, then you must also add daily practices and games. Some people even have jobs, either on or off campus in order to make a little spending money for weekend adventures/festivities. And then of course you must find time to do laundry, eat, and of course sleep, you have to find some time for that.
We all probably wish that college was really like it looks in the movies. It would be so much fun. There would be so much less stress—less tearful all-nighters spent in the library, less doubting every decision we make (since we control our lives) and less stress about passing classes and the reality of the real world. We would be able to enjoy what our parents and other adults consider “the best years of our lives." Instead of partying and drinking 24/7, living this grand social life, we must balance a full course load of classes and assignments, daily tasks, like eating and sleeping (if we have time), and social activities whether it’s partying or being a part of a club meetings or holding a job to help build your résumé
Juggling all of that may not sound easy or fun, but somehow despite all of the stress and the little free time we have left, we make the most of it. And people think that we can’t handle the real world—if we can function while juggling all of that, I’m quite certain we can do anything we set our minds to.
