If you know the struggle of moving away for college and living on your own, learning life lessons the hard way, while trying to juggle a social life, grades, and getting enough sleep, then these 15 thoughts have probably crossed your mind. We know too well the days that turn into long nights of studying, then forcing yourself to get out of bed for class in the morning. We know the weeks that drag and seem like they take a month and the days where you have too much to do with not enough time to do it all. We know the struggle of the college life, and I am here to tell you, that we are all in this together.
1) #!@*
Basically, this is any swear word that comes to mind when things don’t go as planned, and there’s way too many unexpected things that happen throughout the day to name. For instance, you forgot to print your paper for your next class.. “#!@*” ! You trip over your own feet on the side walk? “#!@*” You wake up late for class the day you have a test? “#@!*” You realize you forgot your room key the second you walk out the door? “#!@*” The list goes on and on.
2) What time is it?
While sitting in class for what seems like forever, you constantly are looking at your phone to check the time. Even though that only makes it worse and you realize you have another half hour of lecture to sit through. This thought happens at least 10 times a day; we need to know if we have time for a 20 minute power nap or enough time to watch another episode of Grey’s Anatomy before class. Duh.
3) Is there an outlet in this room?
Every college student lugs around their laptop to every class and every trip to the library. When we enter a class room, our eyes go directly to the wall to check if there is any place to sit where we can plug in our laptop, because who wants to take handwritten notes anymore? Plus, hiding behind your Mac is a great way to escape the awkward glances from your teacher when they’re looking for someone to answer the question that no one knows.
4) I wonder if anyone has quarters…
Laundry. The piles of dirty clothes sitting in the corner of your room from long days of class and sweaty workouts. You know you have to wash them soon, because it’s beginning to get out of hand, but don’t have any more quarters to your name. This is a common problem among the busy college student. You don’t want to sound desperate, but you kind of are, so you ask your roommate anyway if they could let you borrow a few quarters if you promise to pay them back. After all, that’s what roommates are for, right?
5) That was due today?!
We try to stay organized and write in our daily planners, we really do, but sometimes the work load gets hard to handle. We end up not realizing that the assignment we were putting off all week is due today or that we wrote down the wrong date, or just forgot to put it in our calendar. It happens. But when it does, we silently freak out in our seats and start thinking of all the different breaks in our day when we could hurry up and write the 3 page essay in APA format with an annotative bibliography due at midnight.
6) What’s for lunch?
We often ask around to see if someone has already went to lunch, so we can know what to look forward to during class-- because something has to get us through the next half hour! But sometimes, eating at the caf gets boring and too routine. After all, we eat there for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every single day. So, we can’t help but wonder what they are serving us after a long, drawn out morning of classes. We all wish every day was either “breakfast for dinner” or “make your own taco” day, but most of time, we are just happy to be eating real food.
7) Jacket, or no jacket?
Going to classes and other activities for the day without time to get back to our dorm room makes us really think about what we need to be prepared. We think thoughts like, “Is it going to rain today?” or, “Should I carry my jacket or just leave it here?” More often than not, the weather isn’t going to be like anything we had in mind, so we take the jacket anyway, then regret our decision when it ends up being 70 degrees and sunny.
8) Just five more minutes…
Procrastinating. Everyone does it to a degree, but some more than others. Whether we don’t want to get up in the morning, or look over our notes for our quiz in an hour, or just need 5 more minutes of sitting and doing nothing before getting up and taking on the day. That extra five minutes gives us enough motivation and energy to get us going again, and it’s worth it every time.
9) How many more days left in the semester?
This thought crosses our mind when we are up at three in the morning finishing an ethics paper that is due at 9:30, or we just don’t want to sit in the same classes for another four weeks. We never really figure out the exact number, but we always wonder what it is and continue complaining about how long it’s taking until the end.
10) Stay in, or go out?
There’s always a place to go and people to hang out with, but sometimes you just need to stay in and binge watch a Netflix season. Other times, you might need to go out and have fun, because getting dressed and getting out of the cramped dorm room is all it takes to shake off the stress that built up during the week. Either way, this thought is constantly on our mind toward the end of the week when everyone is talking about their plans for the weekend.
11) Where’s the remote?
Okay, so this could work for anyone, but especially college students. Our rooms are usually messy, so it’s easy for us to misplace the remote. When it goes missing, we tend to blame the others in the room and lose all the trust we once had for them.
12) Which towel is mine?
Living with one roommate, or more, has its complications. Sharing is normal, but when it comes to towels or bathroom items, it gets a little weird. You find yourself standing in the middle of the bathroom asking yourself, “which one is mine?” because once again, the dorm is usually a mess and it’s legitimately hard to tell which bundled up towel is yours.
13) I need to go to the gym.
Once you have enough motivation to get off your bed, you throw on your gym clothes and say to yourself, “okay, that’s enough. I need to go to the gym.” Let’s be honest: we have so much to do, the last thing that we want is to expend more energy and get more clothes sweaty to add to our pile of dirty laundry. But, some days, all you need is to relieve some stress by sweating it off. After all, you probably needed to shower anyway.
14) I miss my mom.
We all get home-sick eventually, even though we tell ourselves that we want to get out of the house and away from the same-old town that we grew up in. Sometimes, all we want is to go back to that familiar place and be with the people that really understand you.
