My college graduation is near and I cannot tell you how excited I am. I have been studying for 19 years of my life and I am so ready to be done. I will be giving a friendly rant to the things that I have grown sick of while at school. Don’t get me wrong-- I love my friends, classes, and learning new things. But after some time after doing the same thing over and over again, everything just gets real old, real fast. This is not in order. I simply wrote anything that came to my mind, as they did. Here’s why I’m ready and excited to be done and to start new in my life!
- I am done with routines
I was never a big fan of routines-- they always wore me out and dragged me down. I am a free spirit. If I am told what to do for too long, I begin to get really cranky. I want to be able to have my freedom and do whatever I want-- not being confined to a schedule and seeing the same people and doing the same tasks every other day. It gets real old real fast. I know that is what will be expected of me in the workforce, but if I work my way up, I am hoping to one day become my own boss.
- I am so over the studying
It feels like I have been confined to books and research my whole life. Two words: Over it. It takes up too much of my time and if I am having a hard time with a part of research, I tend to get stressed over it easily. And we all know that stress is definitely not worth anyone’s time and energy. I could be putting my energy elsewhere-- like the gym; going on a hike; creating music or my own piece of writing; or simply by having great discussions with friends. The list is endless for the things that I could do if studying was never involved.
- I am over the commute
Don’t get me wrong: Some days, the commute to school is a lot of fun. But if you have to wake up every morning and plan a good 40-45 minutes to drive to get here, it can get really stressful. Deep down, I am a perfectionist and if anything slows me down to arrive here on time, I will get mad. Sometimes, my laptop will stop working right before I print something, slowing me down to get to class. Other days, drivers will drive too slow for me or cut me off-- again, affecting my driving time. Oh and let’s not forget the endless potholes in the road. Let’s not forget them. But if I do have time to kill, which I rarely do, I enjoy the scenic drive to class. But 90% of the time when everything gets in my way, I really don’t.
- The annual and semesterly payments
We all know, for most students, the dreaded time of the year: Tuition payments. As college students, we are all broke and running out of money ever-so-quickly. And going to the bursar’s office is just another friendly reminder that we will one day have to pay back for the four (or more) years that we have completed here. And the grand total debt is definitely not a pretty number-- especially after graduation when you know the bills are going to gradually start leaking into the point where you are flooded with debt. Fun times.
- Group projects
Not every class has group projects, but when they are assigned, they can sure be dreadful. You never know if the people in your group are as reliable as they keep assuring you they are. Some of the group members are slack-offs and don’t get their work done until the last minute. Some group members don’t care at all-- leaving you to do all the work. And finally, you never know if you can trust the members who you’re working with. If you’re a straight-A student, you always want to double-check everyone’s work and make sure that everything you (and everyone else) wrote and every little detail is accurate. If the group members’ work is not accurate, you could be left stuck editing a lot of work. It gets to be stressful.
- Exams
Let’s face it: Exams are never fun. They are full of studying and stress. Also, if you have a professor that never made a certain topic clear, it is quite clear that you will be sure to dread the exam you will soon take. It’s almost as if you will be taking it blindly, relying on some form of faith to guide you through and get and A. I sometimes wish that all classes never required us to take exams. I would actually love school a whole lot more. It would be relaxing and stress-free. We would learn things at our convenience and not have to study a single thing. Wouldn’t that be great? We all wish that; but unfortunately, in order for one to obtain a degree, one must have to be the master at what they know. Professors don’t assume that we know everything they teach us. We must have to prove it to them by aceing or mastering an exam. It makes sense.
- Papers
From time-to-time, I find writing papers to be okay. They were fun to compose during my first two years of college. However, after some time, especially during your junior and senior year of college, writing papers can be real dreadful-- especially when you have to write research papers. Freshman year, you thought 2-3 pages to write was bad. But now, as a senior, you find 2-3 pages to be nothing. Now, 2-3 pages seems like a paragraph. It’s the 8-10 pages that are dreadful. Those can take hours and days to write-- especially when you have to find a lot of secondary literature and quotes to back up your thesis statement and everything you’re saying. I’ve also heard that in grad school, writing papers doesn’t get easier, which makes sense, considering it’s grad school. But I’ve heard that in grad school, you have to write out 20-30 page papers. Talk about yikes!
- Readings
The one thing that I found to be the most annoying task in all of college were reading assignments. Depending on the course, you may end up having a lot of things to read overnight or within the course of a week. I remember I once had a class that gave me 70 pages to read overnight and then write about it. It was not fun. I’m a slow reader so I can retain all of the information that I read. But 70 pages and then writing it all out? That’s another story. What made it worse was that this was not the only assignment I had overnight. I also had to worry about the assignments I’ve been working on for my other classes. When I woke up the next day, I swear I was the Walking Dead.
- Finals
Ah, the best part of the semester: Final exams! Woohoo! Just kidding. Final exams are nothing but a lot of studying and not fun. Studying for them can take several hours and maybe even days to the point where you feel comfortable and confident enough in taking them. They’re dreadful and stressful at first, but once you gain that spark of confidence, you will enter them, readier than ever.
College comes with its ups and downs, but all-in-all, I know that one day I will miss it. I will miss my friends here; my professors; going to class; the learning experience-- little things like that. As of now, most of my experience has become stressful and annoying, mainly because I’ve been doing the same thing for most of my life. My chapter is almost over and it’s a bittersweet feeling. Everything that I ranted above may annoy and stress me out now, but I do know that one day, I will miss the little details about my time here. They may be stressful, but at one point, the stress will be nothing more than memories. That’s why, while here, we must enjoy it to the fullest and make the most out of it. One day, all we will have are memories, as with any stage and chapter in life.
