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The Insanity of it allJun 12 '01 Write an essay on this topic.The Bottom Line Gotta live it to know it. So go live it up! They say that college is the best four years of your life. Well live it up to the cliche because they are right! Yet again I'm brinking on my one year experience but let's get down to the nitty gritty stuff. What is college like? Nothing can prepare you for what college is like. This is my experience at a small liberal arts school. Roommates! Remember in Dirty Dancing when Patrick Swayze says, "this is your space and this is my space."? Well welcome to the invasion of your personal space. This is a pernament sleepover. Were you once a private shy person? Loosen up a bit because now you'll be living with someone, dressing, undressing, sleeping, burping, farting and who knows what else. You let your personal guard down pretty darn fast. And don't think that getting along with your roommate is a given. It's not. My roommate and I? Different. Before I went to school, I marked that I was "quiet". Honey, let me tell you that I'm far from quiet. But I didn't want a loud roommate so I marked that I was "quiet". My roommate? Pretty quiet. I pretty much got free reign of the room. When I suggested we move the furniture around, she was all for it. Another case in point about different. Music. Heck, I like all kinds. She has her own choices. Occasionally they blend, mostly they don't. So it was really a matter of respect when we played our own music and listened to the other play music. But!! What about when she and I both had boyfriends..... Relationships...not friendships..but Relationships I wrote a paper for English my first semester entitled, "The Theory of Accelerated Relationships". Completely true. Imagine this. Hundreds of people from all over are suddenly brought together. You learn about each other quickly. Very quickly. You become intimate with lots of people since you're with them 24/7. And boyfriends. Well of a sudden there's a new sea to navigate. My roommate and I had boyfriends at about the same time. Her boyfriend was around the room all the time. During the day, he was always in there. This got annoying. Especially when he started to sleepover. Now I didn't mind really at first but when it became pretty much every night...I got annoyed. So I said something and it was cut to only weekends. They never "did" anything while I was in the room, but sometimes just walking in to your own room and seeing someone other than your roommate is uncomfortable. What's more uncomfortable? Having your roommate walk in on you and your boyfriend. That's another story...Bottom line is that you learn quickly to respect other people's space and how to communicate. Because if you don't establish some basic rules at the beginning, it'll be hell in months to come. I completely digressed from relationships. People will hook up quickly. My advice is to take it slow and get to know people before you do anything. My boyfriend and I were best friends for months before we started offically dating. Greek Life An important facet of college life is the Greek Life. Before you even apply to a school, you should research it's Greek Life and find out just how dominant the Greek Life is. On my campus, Greek Life doesn't rule the school and is a small fraction of the campus life. This is nice. I went through rush and pledged to a sorority. Yet before initiation, I depledged. Ooooh. The thing is I figured out that the sorority wasn't what I really want. My close friends didn't rush and while I could be happy, I couldn't be really happy. And I felt much better with my decision. But I'm glad I went through rush because I got to know some cool people and I got to see what the Greek life is like. You can't really say much about Greek life unless you actually participate. And I can still go to the parties the fraternities have regardless of my non-Greek affiliation. Not to mention that sororities and fraternities are expensive. Dues for my particular sorority were about $300 a semester. That's a lot of money that could be spent on beer or books. Classes This is one of the biggest changes in life. Taking classes. I had four classes each semester and they were either Monday/Wednesday/Friday or Tuesday/Thursday. They ranged from 50 minutes to an hour and 30 minutes or an hour and fifty minutes. Yet, some days I didn't have class until 11 or even 3. This was a wonderful thing. I could sleep in and take it leisurely. I did have an 8 am class first semester. A class time period I vowed never to have again. All of a sudden there's so much free time, it's a bit overwhelming. I learned quickly to take advantage of this free time and actually do homework. It saved me time later to do fun stuff. Sundays became homework days and as the semester dragged on, so did Saturdays. But classes were fun and professors were funny and interesting. Most of them. Talking with others before you register helps weed out the bad professors. Professors are approachable and for the most part, willing to help out. Some, more than others. I recommend talking to professors, participating and asking if you need help. Pressure Peer pressure will fly in from all directions. Alcohol, pot, drugs, sex. The best thing you can do is know what you want to do, know the consequences and be true to yourself. There's common sense to be known. My school has alcohol poisoning cards, something I carry around with me when I go to parties. And realize that you should be having fun at parties. Getting trashed and smashed is not fun. My main rule? If there's no dancing, then it's not a fun party. My other main rule? Keep in mind the company you're with. They can make or break a good time. If you're asian like me, you turn red if you drink. It's called the "Asian glow". It's a good deterrant to not drink a lot. Overall Nothing can prepare you for college life. Not this epinion I wrote or stories you hear. You just have to go and experience it yourself. And trust me, you'll have a good time doing so.  |
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