College campuses are some of the most unique places to observe. Everyone is juggling jobs, internships, extracurricular activities, and social lives, all while also trying to keep up with homework while trying to get enough sleep every night. Because of the hectic nature of the environment, I have made a few observations about actions that are totally acceptable in college, but not at all acceptable in real life.
1. Sleeping literally everywhere.
Having classes that are an hour apart can be good because that means you can take a quick nap in between classes. The problem is, there usually isn't enough time to walk all the way back to your dorm or apartment to take this nap (unless you want to take a five-minute nap then wake up and have to walk all the way back to class). College students quickly found the solution to this problem. Just sleeping anywhere and everywhere. If you go to a college campus and walk around for about fifteen minutes, chances are you will see an undergraduate student catching some Z's in a random place. Some common places I have noticed are libraries, buses, hallways outside of classrooms, coffee shops, and basically, anywhere that has a couch. A few places that are a little more on the bizarre side include in the middle of the quad, park benches, and once I saw someone leaned up against a building sleeping (I could hear them snoring). Sometimes it is hard to get a full night's sleep and if sleeping at random places on campus helps you focus for your next class, then go for it!
2. Eating Breakfast at noon, lunch at 7pm and dinner at 2am; and sometimes having the same meal for all three.
The overall atmosphere of college campuses is enough to throw off a person's routine. Class schedules in general make it nearly impossible to eat at "normal" times, but add in a part-time job and a ton of homework and that throws everything out of whack. When you pull an all-nighter to finish that paper that is due and cram for the exam that you have later that day, dinner can happen in the middle of the night, which throws off when you eat breakfast the next day and so on. Not only that, but living in a dorm, you don't have the means to cook much other than microwaveable meals, so your choices for food aren't the greatest. And if you live in an apartment, then you sometimes don't have time to cook anything, so you settle for leftovers for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks.
3. Ordering an extra large pizza just for yourself because you know it will last you a few days.
Since they know that there will be times where you are living off nothing but leftovers, college students have developed a good way to ensure they have leftovers to eat. If you order a pizza for yourself and would normally get a small, get an extra large so it can last you a few more days. Same goes for any type of food. Ordering or making a lot more than you intend to eat so you won't have to cook for the next few days is the best way to know that you have something to eat. It's like meal prep: college edition.
4. Wearing the same clothes two days in a row because you Monday/Wednesday classmates don’t know your Tuesday/Thursday life
Where I go to school, most classes either meet Monday/Wednesday/Friday or Tuesday/ Thursday. If you haven't done laundry in a while (or if you have and just don't feel like picking out clothes every day), it's common to wear the exact same outfit two days in a row because (most of the time) you don't have class with the same people two days in a row. The only people that will know you wore the same outfit twice are the people you hang out with, and they won't judge you because chances are, they are doing the same thing.
5. Leaving expensive things on a table or on the floor while you leave and do something else.
So you're in the library and you get hungry. There's a store in the library so to go get food will take approximately ten minutes. People in the real world would pack their bags up, go get food, and hope that when you're done getting food there will still be a seat open. That's not the case for college students. They will leave our expensive laptops, headphones, and basically any and all of our belongings sitting on the table when we go to the bathroom, go to get food, or go on a walk and hope that no one steals anything while we are gone.
6. And finally, having 4 exams, 2 papers, and 3 quizzes due by the end of the week and deciding that watching Netflix should take precedence.
You intended to get everything done, but procrastination has struck yet again. You make yourself a to-do list: study for exams, write papers, take quizzes, complete readings, and finish watching *insert any series here* on Netflix. Real world logic: I will get all of my work done and reward myself with Netflix when it is all complete. College student logic: after careful contemplation, I have decided that the first thing that has to get crossed off the list is to finish the series on Netflix because if I finish it, then there won't be anything left to distract me from doing the other work, right? Or I could definitely multitask and do my readings and write my papers while watching Netflix, right? And I can totally make up enough excuses to justify why choosing to watch Netflix is better than actually being a productive student, right? Right.
