I remember saying "school is hard" or "I'm so over this" when I was in high school. Little did I know what was ahead of me... College is quite different and has made me realize I took some things for granted in high school.
1. Sleep
I wish I got eight hours of sleep a night like I did in high school. Naps are an essential in college.
2. Home cooked meals
Because of how crazy your schedule can get in college, you'll be lucky if you are even home early enough to actually cook one meal a week. Props to my parents for cooking when they got home from work most nights; I have no energy to do so.
3. Free textbooks
I wish we still got to go check out a textbook for the year in the library rather than renting or buying them.Textbook prices in college are ridiculous to say the least. It still makes no sense to me how we have to drop over $100 on a loose-leaf textbook.
4. Family time
I did spend a lot of time home with family in high school, but I wish I had chosen to spend even more nights at home. Thankfully my parents love Ole Miss football, so I still get to see them pretty often during football season.
5. Seeing friends everyday
College makes it pretty hard to maintain all the high school friendships because everyone is in a new place trying to live a new life. (You'll stay connected to the real ones though.) College friendships are even hard because college campuses are so big and everyone is involved in so many different things, resulting in differing schedules within your friend group.
6. Easy A classes
Yeah... these are non-existent in college if you ask me.
7. Lockers
I remember complaining that we couldn't take our backpack to class because we had to use our locker. Now, I realize how much I took having a locker for granted. When you've got three classes, two meetings, and have to study for exams all in one day on campus, your backpack is as full (and heavy) as it can get.
8. Having classes in one building
Honestly, I don't mind walking from class to class across campus in the spring time, but walking across campus in the winter can be rough. Having all classes in the same building in high school was definitely a blessing.
9. Being able to actually take a sick day without missing anything in class
Miss a day in high school? No biggie. Miss a day in college? Okay. You missed notes the professor probably is not going to upload to Blackboard, a quiz the professor may or may not let you make up, and the review session for your exam next week. Oh, and don't forget you've got to play catch up or you won't understand anything during the next class because they are not going to wait on you or reteach anything.
10. Extra credit opportunities
With the exception of a few really great professors I've had, extra credit has been hard to come by in college. I feel like we always got extra credit in high school to help bring our grade up, but now? Not really. You get what you earn.
11. Field trips
Field trip days in high school were the best because you really only spent a small amount of time doing the 'educational stuff' and then you went out to eat before going back to school at the end of the day. "Field trips" (aka outside of class projects that require you to go somewhere to complete it) still exist in college, but they are on your OWN time... in addition to the million other things you have going on outside of classes.
12. Structured schedules
Yes, you have a set class schedule in college, but each day has a new schedule full of assignments, homework, studying, dinner with friends, meetings for organizations, attempts at having a social life, etc. I liked having the same basic schedule in high school: go to school until 3:50, go to cheer practice until 6, go home, eat dinner, do homework, go to bed (at a reasonable time might I add.)
13. Being able to balance school, clubs, sports, and have a social life
I was extremely involved in high school and was actually able to maintain it pretty easily. (I mean seriously, I was involved in just about everything.) But in college? It can be quite the challenge to balance the good grades, involvement in organizations, attending sporting events, AND having a social life all at the same time.
14. Not having to worry about not finding a parking spot on campus
Parking in college SUCKS. You'd think with how much money we give the university that we'd be guaranteed a parking spot, but you'd be surprised.
15. Not having to pay a ridiculous amount of money for a parking pass
$300 for a parking pass... are you kidding me...
16. Summer and winter breaks without taking extra courses to get ahead
Although our summer and winter breaks are much longer in college, that's the time that you take courses to get ahead. I decided to knock out both of my required accounting courses in one summer; this was my view every single day. It was a lot of work, but it was worth it in the end. Breaks in high school were strictly for traveling and resting; I want that kind of break back.
17. Having a scheduled time to eat lunch everyday
Yes, I hated not having the same lunch as my friends in high school. But, that prepared me for college. Now, I don't even know when I'm going to get to eat at all, nonetheless eat WITH friends.
18. Having free time
Free time does not exist in college. If it does, you're probably forgetting something or procrastinating.
19. Not feeling like you always need to be studying
There is ALWAYS something to be working on or studying for (unlike many tests in high school that you really didn't even have to study for.)
20. Not ALWAYS having some sort of homework
Seriously, there is never a day, weekday or weekend, that I go without doing some sort of homework.
21. Spirit weeks/ days serving as distractions from classes
Let's face it: in high school, Friday home games made the school day a joke. Everyone was dressed up and excited for the game, so no one wanted to do any work or pay attention in class. I wish this was the case in college. Yes, students get excited for game day when Friday rolls around, but not every professor loves football as much as we do and lets us off for the day to rest for the game on Saturday.
22. Friday night lights
I miss spending Friday nights on the sidelines cheering on my school's football team. Don't get me wrong; I love Saturday college football. But considering the small amount of sleep I get during the week in college thanks to homework, I'd like to spend some Saturdays just being lazy at home. College game day makes that a difficult task; the entire day is taken up by football.
23. Feeling at home
Now that we're in college, we question where home really is. Is it where we grew up? Is it where our parents are? Is it in our new college town? Or all the above?
24. Free periods
I have yet to have a class where they say "okay, I don't have anything planned for today, so do whatever you want." I miss having free periods in high school to just sit and talk with friends or catch up on homework from another class.
25. Small classes
Since I'm in the honors college, some of my classes are smaller in size, which I absolutely love. But, some of my other classes, like the history and math that everyone has to take regardless of their major, are quite a bit larger.
26. Class parties
Whenever we finished major projects or papers (or it was the seniors last day!!), my classes always had parties to celebrate. It was so nice to spend a class period indulging in cheese dip and pizza while drinking sweet tea (notice how I had to keep it safe driving to school) or soda instead of doing actual school work. This definitely will not happen in college...
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