Then and Now

From being born to growing up and learning how to tie our shoes, to going to preschool and kindergarten, to learning how to ride our bikes and losing our baby teeth, to going to elementary school, to taking state testing, such as ISTEP, to going to high school and getting our first “jobs” to taking SATS, to graduating. What could be the next HUGE step? Well, I have the answer for you: College.

By now, we all understand that college is one of the biggest steps in our lives that we have taken so far. We were scared, excited, nervous, afraid, anxious, and about every other adjective you could possibly imagine. The first days and weeks were filled with so much emotion, and then, as we got into the swing of things, most of these terrible feelings seemed to dwindle away. Now we are more excited than ever to be here, and why is this true?

• No Parents. No longer do we have to listen to our parent’s every command. We are on our own now and we have to make our best judgments because they are no long around 24/7 to make them for us. We feel more mature about ourselves.

• Class Schedules. Each person has a different schedule. Some people I know have 7:30 AM classes. I do not ever go to class until at least 9:30 AM. I have classes during lunch hours, and many of my friends do not. Our schedules are so different that some of us do not even have class every day of the week. I do, but a few of my friends do not have classes on Tuesdays or Fridays. Some people get all the luck. It is just nice and fun to have breaks during the day. It is not like high school anymore. Not every one of us starts and finishes the school day at the same time. We can form our daily lives around these schedules, making us feel more responsible.

• Meet People. Once we begin to make new friends, we feel accepted. There are so many people that there are always opportunities to make friends. You could make a new friend every day if you wanted! Spending time with these new friends helps us to form our new comfort zones since we have left our former zones back home.

• Weekends. In high school, our weekends were pretty much only Friday and Saturday. Now, you find that most of us go out Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. This is because most of us do not have early classes on Friday, and if we do, chances are we just skip them. In college, Thursday is referred to as “Thirsty Thursday”. I am not sure how this got started, but it exists.

Everything seems to fall into place after being in college for a couple weeks and especially after a month or two. I was visiting Surviving College Life, and Jamie refers to college as being “your chance” and I agree completely. Here, we make our own choices. We adjust to our new lives. We feel more responsible. We are without parents. We are with new crowds of people. Most of all, we have fun. Admit it, you know this will be one of the best four years of your life!