College, it’s one of the best times of your life, or so you’d think. To high school students, college seems so glorious and all with freedom away from home and not having your parents breathing down your neck to clean your room, do your homework, or go to bed early. Well, I hate to be the Debbie-Downer, but college is not all what it cracks up to be. What you see in the movies and what you’ve heard from older friends and relatives is not the case for everyone’s college experiences.
The food is nothing like what they tell you about on tours. Chances are that the food you’ll get served in your dining hall will be less than satisfying and make you miss your parents home cooking more than you would ever think you would. The best part about going to my dining hall is the hot chocolate machine. Three-minute easy mac, nutella, and other random snacks will become your best friend and enemy.
The freshman 15 is real. Unless you go to the gym everyday and find a way to eat healthy, there is almost no escaping gaining weight in college. From the fries and ice cream at the dining hall, going out on the weekends, to the late night fast food deliveries and snacking when you’re not even hungry at 2 AM. Finding time for fitness can be a struggle because everyone is trying to avoid the dreaded weight gain and it just leaves the gym crowded and uncomfortable.
Having to make most decisions all on your own for probably the first time in your life can lead to a lot of stress. Stress is bound to happen to every college student whether you like it or not. Stress eating, stress sleeping, stress crying, even stress laughing; it’s a never-ending stress train. Anything and everything can make the stress unbearable at points. You could have exams in multiple classes, three papers due, on top of other responsibilities all in one week. It’s tough.
Communal Living is all fun and games until it's quiet hours. Don't get me wrong, communal living has to be hands down one of the best experiences I've had, but once you have to share a bathroom with 10 other people and live with someone else in a 10x15 foot space, it's not ideal, but oddly, it works out. Freshman year, your floor mates are your best of friends and usually your first friends at that. Staying up 'til 3 am on a Tuesday just because, floor programs, always having someone to go to lunch and dinner with, and always a study buddy.
One of the realest struggles in the life of a college student has to be the bathrooms. There is almost no privacy in a communal bathroom. The showers are typically tiny and the cleanest they can be in a communal bathroom. Shoes are a must when it comes to college bathrooms, especially the showers. You have to lug your shower caddy to and from the bathroom in a towel while trying to avoid the awkward eye contact with your male hall-mates.
College is where you’re supposed to meet your people. The people that become your best friends and the people that like you for you. It’s not like high school when you have to be stuck in the same groups for 4 years, there are no groups. Sure there may be the med students and the lacrosse guys, but you’re not defined to one specific place or group. Your place is anywhere you want to be.
From all the moments that I’ve experienced thus far, I think that without them, college wouldn’t be the same as it is. Everyone has to go through all of the same awkward and frustrating times at one time or another, so why not experience it all for the first time together. College is about making the most of what’s given to you, even if that is uncooked dining hall food and sleepless nights.
