I Love College

            So here we are, going on our third week back in the mountains and things are going well. I’ve been a good little girl and have managed to do my homework the night it’s assigned, versus the night before it’s due like has been my habit for the past three years. That might change this week when the writing center opens and I start my volunteer hours. I just hope that our little study groups can continue in spite of this. 7 to 9 or later, me and two of my favorite ladies in one of the study rooms in our dorm, doing homework and chatting. It’s oddly productive and a way for us to hang out. But anyway. My twelve credit hour semester is going well, and my senior project is slowly shaping itself into something worthwhile. Cross your fingers!

            Am I the only one who has ever had the thought that college life is so weird? Think about it for a minute. Most of us live our lives in ways that will probably stop once we have that degree in our hands. We stay up until 1 in the morning, get up at 8, go to class, go to work/practice, and then do homework and other activities at night. Some of us go to “the club” on Thursdays, while others wait until the weekend. We spend more time with our friends than our own family, eating dinner every night in the caf, sharing dorm rooms and bathrooms. We become obsessed with Facebook and music and wearing sweatpants everywhere. Our suitemates can be our best friends or our worst enemies. We live in a perpetual state of deadlines and due dates and when’s the next football game and do I have enough on my debit card to buy that awesome shirt? It is truly a way of life, a way of living that suddenly explains why some people seem terrified of graduating and moving on into the “real world.”

            I think there different degrees of submersion in the college lifestyle. Access students are probably on one of that spectrum, and the party crowds exist on the other end. I’m somewhere in the middle, along with most of my friends. We are aware of what it takes to hold down a job and to pass our classes, continuously working towards that degree and the “real world.” But we still enjoy the college life, having gatherings that include more alcohol than we’d like to admit and playing games that result in giggle fits while the latest pop culture phenomenon plays in the background. It’s a fun and fascinating life full of ups and downs, and we learn to roll with the punches. And last minute assignments from professors. First time adventures out of the country, out of state, learning about things we never even knew existed before, it’s college.

            We’re always up for adding a new person to our circle of friends. We introduce ourselves and learn about each other, exchanging life experiences and comparing notes in a way that isn’t quite like any other stage of our lives. Existing in our own space without our parents or their rules, some of us for perhaps the first time ever, it’s a fascinating time and lifestyle to be living.