College Life: Expectations

I came to college and had no idea what to expect. I am in this brand new place everyday with new surroundings and people who I don't know. I am so used to being in my little bubble where I've lived practically my whole life with friends I've known forever. I walk around campus not knowing how to get anywhere and feel like this lost little freshman. Then the big question always arises, "What do you want to do with your life?" I usually laugh and say I really have no idea. I don't understand how they can just send us away to college when we are 18 years old and expect us to know what we want to do with the rest of our lives. It seems to me like everyone here at college knows what they want to do with their lives. Maybe I'm just really picky and want the perfect job for myself that is never going to happen.

College life is completely different from high school. Back in high school, I knew almost everyone. I was extremely comfortable with my surroundings. I always felt safe and like I fit in very well. My close friends and family would always be there for me to rely on. Whenever I was sick, lonely, or bored, there was always someone that I could call. They were this constant comfort for me. The classes were much easier in high school as well. Your grades weren't so dependent on your test scores, you had a lot more homework to turn in, and there was a lot more work to base your grades off of.

My first semester here at college, I can say was a wake-up call. I had to learn to be very independent. I have never known what it was like to be that independent before. It's very hard to go from having your mom do almost everything for you, to doing everything completely on your own. I have learned that I am capable of a lot of things that I never thought I was before, such as learning how to use a debit card, write checks, figure out how to get places, talk to teachers, and never get help on a homework assignment. It was very hard to me adjust, and still is to this day.

I remember walking into my first lecture class last semester. I got in the room and there was atleast 400 other students. I thought to myself wow, they really have classes this big. I sat in the class by myself because I didn't know anybody. I was so used to walking into classes in high school having all my friends be there with me. My classes in high school usually had only around 30 people. I sat there for a whole 50 minutes, and when the class was over I felt like it dragged on forever. I really didn't like big classes too much.

I was amazed with the amount of stress I was under with all the tests, readings, and papers I was assigned. I thought high school was hard, but it's definitely not as hard as this. I wondered if other people thought the same as me. The first test I had to take was in chemistry, a class that I hated. I studied a lot for that test, way more than I did in high school. I thought I was really prepared. I got into take the test and didn't know many of the answers to the questions. I was amazed at how hard it was. When the test was over, I prayed that I didn't fail, because I only had 2 more tests and that made my grade in the class. I've realized how important one test can be. I ended up getting a D on my first chemistry test, which was very disappointing. The rest of the semester I would study all the time, and still not do extremely great. I would never feel like my work was good enough and paying off. In high school, I never would even have to study for a test and could still get an A+.

The first few weeks of school, I felt kind of lonely and like I wasn't meeting people. I found myself sitting in my room by myself a lot. I heard a lot of girls talking about sororities they were going to rush. I thought it sounded like a really good idea. I went to the first day of rush, and I can say it was very overwhelming. I had to go to 6 sorority houses and meet a ton of girls. You had to dress a certain way and be very friendly. The next day, you went to another 6 houses and did the exact same thing. The whole process was very overwhelming, but in the end I ended up getting into the house I wanted. I have met a ton of new girls that are all a lot like me. Joining a sorority was probably the best thing I could've done.

Along with the constant stress of school, tests, and meeting all new people, I found it was very hard to not have a car. There would be a lot of things that I would need, such as food and clothes, and I would have no way to get to the store except by taking the bus. The bus schedules seemed to interfere a lot with my class schedules. I would hate not having a car because sometimes I would just miss driving or wish I could just take the car and drive home for a night. Walking everywhere was also getting very tough. It was getting extremely cold outside, and I hated walking from class to class everyday. In high school, you just go to this big building and walk indoors all day, but here that is definitely not the case. You have to give yourself a lot of time to walk too and from class as well.

Time management I have found to be a huge issue for me. First semester, I felt like I honestly had no time for just me. I was so busy all the time with either classes or homework or something else going on. Sometimes I would feel like I didn't even have much to do that day, but I still wouldn't have even a minute in my day to just sit and watch a little t.v. I would get extremely stressed out because of the huge amounts of work that I had to do each day, that all I would want to do at night was sleep. I feel like I used to have so much time on my hands last year, and here you are just constantly bombarding with something. I would constantly feel weighed down and exhausted. I remember last year, my senior year, I would get out of class at 12:30 everyday and go home. I would never have to much homework to do. High school work doesn't even compare to the amount of work that you are given to do in college.

Dorm life was and still is one of the biggest adjustments that I have had to deal with. I wake up every morning, and I feel as though I live in this little tiny box with no room to move. I am used to have a huge room at my house, and a big house to fit all of my belongings in. I came to college amazed at how small the rooms were. My room would look constantly messy because of its little space, and I would always be cleaning it to make it look neater and bigger. The dorms are always loud and crazy, that sometimes it is hard to sleep at night. There are constant distractions in a dorm. The showers, in my opinion, are very unpleasant. I remember the first time I walked outside of my room in my robe, and walked into the very unpleasant, small shower. I had to wear flip flops so my feet wouldn't develop any sort of fungus. I felt really uncomfortable being in a shower that tons of other girls would use. I felt like I didn't have much privacy. I would always worry about somebody stealing my clothes while I was in the shower. There are only a few showers to one bathroom, so a lot of the time when you want to take one there is already somebody in it. I really didn't like the community bathroom. Tons of girls would be in there all at once, brushing their teeth or getting ready to go out, that you can never have a second of privacy. Another thing, that is probably the worst in my opinion, is the dorm food. Each dorm seems to serve the same thing everyday. There is never any variety. I hate having to walk around everywhere just to try to find food that I like. Not all dorms are open on the weekends, so sometimes when it is freezing outside you would have to walk a far distance to go get food. I really started to miss home-cooked meals when I got to school. I love going home now just to go eat my mom's great food.

There is so much pressure to go out and "have a good time" in college. Everyone is always concerned about what they are going to do on the weekends and which frat is having the best party. It seems like to a ton of people, drinking is their main focus.