If you count welcome week, then I have been in college for about three weeks. In these three weeks I have quickly noticed many things about college life that are completely different from the pre-college days of living with my parents and going to high school. I have isolated the five most different things that I feel like are very different from living at home and going to school.
5. Food: Yes, I had to go here. I'm a teenage boy, of course food is vital to this equation. First of all there's more choices in college. There's a few options for food, even on Hanover's campus, and a lot of times you can just go grab food as you desire. I think the food closes by midnight, but until then, there's usually at least one place on campus that will serve you food. On Saturday and Sunday, they have dinner and brunch.At brunch, you can get omelettes made to order, and wow are they heavenly (shoutout to Greg for the omelettes!). If I don't want to eat hot foods, I can go to my dorm and eat Frosted Flakes. When it comes to food, however, the most different thing probably is that nobody is telling you what you can and cannot eat. I have eaten peanut butter and marshmallow fluff sandwiches for breakfast and dinner before, I've had Frosted Flakes at all three meals (not the same day), and I can basically eat whatever snack foods whenever I want to eat them. It's pretty nice.
4. Lack of Dress Code: This more applies to going to going to high school, but it's still a vital part of this equation. THERE'S NO DRESS CODE!!!!!!!!!!!!! Already I have had probably six different times that I broke Brebeuf Jesuit's dress code when I went to class, and it's just plain satisfying. If I don't want to get up early enough to put myself in clothing that doesn't violate the dress code, I don't have to. I can wear sweatpants, I can wear a sleeveless shirt, and I can wear basketball shorts. People have no idea how nice it is not having a dress code.
3. Dorm Life: Me being an only child, dorm life is a big transition for me. For the majority of my life, I haven't shared a bathroom with anyone, and I have never shared a room with anyone. Therefore, these spaces became more or less trainwrecks over the course of time, and eventually I would clean them up only to see them return to the trainwrecked state far too soon. Now, however, I feel obligated to keep my side of the dorm clean because it's not just my space anymore, and having it look like a pit isn't the best idea. Sharing a bathroom with many different people is, well, different from how life used to be. I'm not used to wearing flip flops in the shower, nor am I used to taking all my shower stuff out when I get out of it. It feels weird!
2. Free Time: This is probably one of the biggest differences in most college students' lives between high school/living with your parents and college, and it is one of mine as well. At Brebeuf, they gave students a pretty big amount of free time to do whatever they pleased, but it's a whole different level at college. I have hours of free time in the evenings where I can do whatever I want to do. Sometimes I have to do laundry or homework, but a lot of other times it's goofing around. I watch Netflix in the afternoon sometimes, I go work out, or I just chill with my friends. It's a lot of time, and I have done a pretty good job not forgetting to do important things while still managing to have fun.
1. Autonomy: This has to be the biggest difference for me, hands down. A lot of the above fall under this to one degree or another, but just in general the high level of autonomy is insane. I can go out for a walk at ten o'clock at night and not have to tell anybody where I'm going, I don't have to ask my mom to do anything, I don't have to set aside time to do anything that I don't want to. It's eery sometimes how much freedom college gives me. I'm not used to always doing my own thing and not having to tell anybody about it, I'm not used to not having to do homework right after school, and I'm not used to the hours of time to do whatever I want. I like the autonomy because it makes me feel free, but it's still just a little bit weird getting used to adulting.
