A Day In The Life Of A College Student | The Odyssey Online
Start writing a post
Student Life

A Day In The Life Of A College Student

Because your family and friends back home may still not fully understand.

5
A Day In The Life Of A College Student
Nicole Coates

Being a full-time college student is hard. You have to show up to class, do homework, study for exams, along with extracurriculars, hopefully hang out with friends every so often, grocery shop, and prepare meals, all while somehow getting at least some sleep. With that, those who either have not been to college or haven’t been in a long time sometimes do not understand the student struggle.

How many units are you taking this quarter/semester? Probably at least 12 to get financial aid, and perhaps above 14 in order to be “on track for graduation,” whatever that means, am I right? Your parents might call you and say, “Hey sweetie, what are you up to today?” You try to calmly reply with, “Oh, just a few classes and then studying and eating with some friends; what about you?” They will proceed to just tell you everything about their lives when really you’re probably dying inside. What you really want to say is, “Well, my head hurts, I have a cough, I’m continuously tired, pretty hungry, but I need to go to class, then I have a meeting, then I need to complete this assignment…” but they probably still won’t understand what you are going through.

Many parents miss their children when they go away to college—understandable. However, they expect them to come home often. With that, when you actually are home, they want you to only do family-related things like wake up early and go grocery shopping with them or run other errands with them. They want you to go out to eat with them and go to the movies… but do you have the time? Probably not. Realistically you are probably sitting at the dining room table or locked up in your room trying to focus and study. Especially on the quarter system, you cherish any time you can get from studying. Not only do you have very limited time, but life happens, which can cut into your study time too. Your at-home-friends and family may not get this—they’ll say things like, “Did you not study during the week?” or “Wow, how have you not completed that yet?"

There just isn’t enough time. Even in lectures professors will say, “Ahh, the UC system, where everyone is behind.” Not only are students falling behind in classes, using weekends to catch up, but professors are falling behind too—there just aren’t enough meeting times and structure in order to teach everything to you in the time allotted.

Let’s not get started on academic success—but actually, let’s talk about it. When you aren’t doing well in classes, drop a class, or completely fail a class, it’s shocking not only to yourself, but to your family. Your friends and family then perceive that as though you’re goofing off and not actually paying attention in class. They don’t think, “Oh, that class must have been really difficult,” or, “Hey, maybe my child is going through something emotional right now.” Sometimes they will blame you for your own “failures” and proceed to compare you to others who are being “successful” in school. They just don’t get it.

Don’t be completely mad at them, though. They just don’t really understand, because this is your experience. However, I do hope they give you comfort and love while you complete this difficult time in your life. I hope that eventually, though, they do somewhat understand what you are going through. It really does help to have someone understand your struggle.

Report this Content
This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
Student Life

8 Things I Realized After My First Semester In College

Actually, Kylie Jenner, 2018 is the year of realizing things.

108
Friends

The first semester of college is famous for being one of the most difficult transitions of one's young adult life. You're thrown into a completely new area where the majority of the people surrounding you are strangers in an academic environment that's much more challenging then what you've grown accustomed to for the past twelve years. On top of that, you probably share a room with another person (or even multiple people) on the lumpiest "mattress" you've ever slept on.

With this change comes a lot of questions: what do I want to major in? What am I passionate about? Is what I'm passionate about something I'm actually good at? Why does the bathroom smell like cranberry juice and vodka? What is that thing at the bottom of the shower drain?

Keep Reading...Show less
girls with mascot
Personal Photo

College is tough, we all know. Here are 8 gifs you will 99% relate to if you are in college.

Keep Reading...Show less
Student Life

7 Things College Has Taught Me

Other than knowledge and all those important things

429
7 Things College Has Taught Me
We Know Memes

So, college is the place where you're supposed to learn all of these amazing life skills.

Here are the top seven skills I have learned thus far.

Keep Reading...Show less
college

College is some of the greatest years of anyone's life. Its a time to be outrageous, different and free; a time to do everything you were afraid to do. Here are 38 things you will learn during your four (maybe, five or six) years in college!

1. As a freshman, one does get to be called “freshman” by upperclassmen when they walk to parties in a mob of people.

Keep Reading...Show less
Adulting

6 Unrealistic Expectations Society Has For Young Adults

Don't let the thesaurus-inspired vocabularies in our résumés fool you. We're actually just big kids.

3081
boy in adult clothes

Well over four feet tall and 100 pounds in weight, many of us "young adults" of the world still consider ourselves children. Big, working, college-attending, beer-drinking children. We may live on our own, know how to cook noodles, and occasionally use a planner, but don't be fooled; the youthful tendencies that reside within us still make their way into our daily lives. From choosing to stay up until 3:00 a.m. playing video games on a school night to going out in 30 degree weather without a coat, we still make decisions that our parents and grandparents would shake their heads at in disappointment. So why are we expected to know exactly how to be a wise, professional, sensible adult? It's not that we're irresponsible (for the most part, anyway). It's that we are young, inexperienced, and still have the sought-after, enthusiastic mentality that we can do and be whatever we want, which has not yet been tarnished by the reality of the world. These are just a few of the unrealistic expectations that society has for young adults.

Keep Reading...Show less

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Facebook Comments