College, where do I even began,to quote Charles Dickens, “ It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”. That's probably the best way I can describe what college is really like. I feel like growing up, most people's images of college came from the media, specifically movies, but as we all know college isn’t exactly like the movies, not every weekend is a Project X style party. I personally feel like no one really warns you how hard it actually is, at least no one told me. I decided to write this article, not to scare anyone off but to warn other naive people like myself what it's actually like. First of all, it’s nothing like high school. I would go as far to say college and high school are two completely different worlds. Secondly, college is harder than you think. No its not impossibly hard, but it's probably more work than you think. Third of all, you are responsible for yourself. Finally, college is extremely memorable. Looking back on my past two years in school, I have made so many amazing people and had some amazing times since going off to college. College is basically one big roller coaster, from day one until now it's been nothing but one long ride.
Most people know college isn’t exactly like high school, but I feel like a lot of people think it's similar, when in reality, college and high school are two separate worlds. In high school you have to ask for permission to do just about anything! In high school, they’re pretty strict and tend to always have an eye on you and look out for you. This flat out isn’t the case in college. In college you do whatever you want, whenever you want. No one cares if you get up to go to the bathroom in the middle of class, no one cares if you leave half way through the class, hell, no one cares if you even go to class or not( unless the professor has an attendance policy, then they care). College is also different in the sense that you live, within blocks of people from all different walks of life from all different states and even country. This makes for a pretty big adjustment when you’re not used to living across the block from your best friend. Basically college is nothing like high school, flat out.
College is also a lot harder than people expect. I was the first one in my immediate family to go off to a four year school, so when I got here I had no idea what to expect, academic wise. When I got here I was like “oh this isn’t so bad”, but now almost halfway through my junior year, I have to say it's gotten a lot harder. There's almost always something to do in college, whether it's studying for an exam or reading a book or article for class, there's always something that needs to be done, even when you think there’s nothing, there's something, trust me. The other thing that kind of sucks about college, is there’s not a lot of assignments so everything is worth a lot more than it should be, so basically your grades fluctuate, a lot.
Even though college isn’t exactly what you expect it's definitely memorable. College is such a unique experience that I wouldn’t change for the world. Yes, there are the bad days, the weeks where you’ve been freaking out and borderline mental breakdown at the Lib or the Tech, but that's okay, it happens to the best of us. When it all comes down to it there is so much good to outweigh all of the bad. From the first day here at Temple I met so many different people from so many different walks of life. Although the work is hard and it sucks sometimes the social scene all in all is pretty cool, who doesn’t love a ratchet party on Gratz every once in awhile( or a ratchet frat party if you’re not from Temple), or spending the day exploring the city or the surrounding areas. All in all college was, is, and always will be one of the greatest experiences of my life, just be ready for it.
