It has been two weeks now.
My brain fails to compute that amount of time for two reasons, seemingly contradictory ones.
Firstly, I have SURVIVED first two weeks in college. Secondly, there are three more months to go.
I feel as if I have lived these period of days for the longest of time and now I am accustomed to each day being a variation of the next and even the conclusion that I no longer resort to Google Maps to navigate around campus says a lot. Spoiler Alert: College expectations and reality tend to be skew lines of sorts; they are not parallel, neither do they ever intersect. Coming onto my topic for the article: trade offs. The primary reason that trade-off is the most suitable concept to explain college life is because now, most of your decisions are your OWN. Without parents, you actually have to put on your thinking cap and be a strong, independent human. This very part horrified me initially as it also led to a stark realization that had never sunk in until then: I had been dependent on my parents for marginally a large number of things. Nonetheless, as I embarked on the journey of making daily decisions, I realized, each had some subtle, some salient features in common: trade-offs. Trade-offs seemed so relevant as whenever I decided to make one decision, I ended up forsaking it for 'n' others.
I will be extremely honest, sometimes these decisions became nerve-wracking and actually elicited a mental cry in me. In this article, I would highlight some of the questions that proved to be difficult trade-offs to me, personally.
Should I go out late at night for an ice-cream or should I stay back and finish my weekly reading for classes? If I don't do the former, I feared loss of friends or company or memories (even ice cream only when I felt hungry). If I don't do the latter, I would be procrastinating and resorting to loss of knowledge and discussion in the class, even a good night's sleep.
Should I dine out on Thayer Street at a Mexican restaurant or should I use my meal swipe at an eatery/dining hall? The former seemed very appealing until I realized I hadn't been using a lot of my meal swipes, for which my parents have already paid money for. But then again, weighing the quality of food at both places displaced my judgment. Should I pay more money towards food expenses or should I use my existent, already paid ones? Both places have different ambiences and while one has less choices, the other has more. This really put me in a pickle.
Should I choose the really interesting Urban Studies class that clashes with my concentration requirement course this semester or should I take a different course that interests me less but makes my schedule hectic? Shopping period, in American colleges, is one or two week of complete frenzy that amplifies the already muddled 'new adults' even more. Try choosing between 1000 flavors of chocolate ice cream only to decide upon four or five, other than which, you cannot have for the next four months. Worse part is that each course as interesting, if not more, than the other and then it was time to evaluate course load, exam dates, difficulty of course material, etc. Research, attending lectures to decide the better class (or in some cases, professor), registering and dropping courses, catching up on their weekly readings and home work, while maintaining notes made me fall of my seat of tranquility for one whole week. It was hell.
Should I go to sleep or should I go to a party or should I binge-watch the TV show I had intended to complete in the summers?
Should do laundry now or should I clean my room?
Should I solve my Math homework first or should I attend the club meeting?
Should I get free food at Event A or Event B?
Should I buy milk this week or should I wake up early and drag myself to the dining hall for breakfast?
Should I eat this pancake or should I take salad?
Should I sit in the front at a class or should I take a back seat?
Should I set an alarm for 6 am or should I wake up half an hour before class?
Should I write this article I have due or should I explore Providence?
I guess you all know which I chose in the last set of options :)
