When you think of going to college you think you know exactly what to expect. Well at least I did, I had it all planned out in my mind how this would go but I was wildly wrong. I had my dorm room all planned out, then I got here and made four trips to Target within two days and realized I was quite underprepared. I thought, "I'm going to go to the gym everyday!" It's day 8 and I still haven't touched the gym. All in all, life's not always what we expect, so here are five things I learned my first week of college:
1. There are people everywhere. Literally everywhere.
It feels like there is not a place on campus where you are truly alone. Now, I’m not sure if that excites you or terrifies you but it’s the honest truth. Even places you go to be alone, for example, the conference room at the end of the hall, has windows out to everywhere, so yet again, you are basically with every person walking by or hanging out across the way.
2. Eating three meals a day is not a thing.
You wake up in the morning and have class at 9. Will it ever be worth it to wake up 40 minutes earlier then you normally would, to go walk in the heat and wait in a line longer then Disneyland on opening day. The simple answer is no. So you opt for a banana. Then lunch rolls around, and you are in class till 3. Perfect. At this point you are wondering, “Is this considered lunch or dinner?” So you eat your dinner and walk back to your dorm. You just ate a full meal at 3p.m. so you are, rightfully so, not hungry for dinner. You return to the state of hunger around 10p.m. to which you opt for a microwaved bag of popcorn and call it good. All in all, you have really only eaten one full meal in your day and you pray your mother doesn’t ask you what you have been eating.
3. Security is tight.
Try breaking into this place, I dare you. Around every corner there is a public safety officer. Into every dorm there are two check points where you need to scan your key fob. Now getting passed the first one is easy, it’s the second one that you will have trouble with. Once you get past the second door you need a key to open the door into your living room and then you will also need to unlock the door to the room. And if you are trying to get to the goods they will typically be hidden behind a door under the desk with yet another lock on it. I don’t know about you, but I would pick another school to try and mess with.
4. The sporting events could quite possibly be mistaken for professional games.
Now I am not necessarily talking about the quality of the game, though our teams are quite good, I’m talking about the crowd that comes out to these things. The dedication is baffling. Picture 500 students painted purple, and the rest decked out in spirit wear. The last game, there were so many people, I ended up sitting on the third floor stairs of the Humanities building looking through bars. Wild, just wild.
5. You are finally able to spread your wings, and fly.
The term “free as an eagle” is your mantra. You walk around this school; you own this school. You have no one, nowhere telling you what to do or how to do it (except professors and RAs but for the purpose of this point we will disregard those). You can eat food whenever you want, you can hit up the gym whenever you feel like that food is getting to you, you can walk around campus aimlessly for hours and hours and no one will tell you no.
College means you are finally that adult you always begged your parents to treat you like. This is it, you have made it, embrace it my friend, embrace it for all it's worth.
