College is meant to be a time where you expect to enjoy every aspect of your "dream college experience", but what if that is not the case for every college student?
It's totally normal to dislike certain things you have to do or put up with while you are in college. I know I do.
Don't get me wrong, I love my campus and I'm thankful I get to experience this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but sometimes college becomes too hectic where I start to believe I don't belong in college.
People tend to focus on how much fun and excitement college brings. Although that is true and something bound to happen, there are many other different cards college brings to the table that you may not enjoy.
1. Feeling Alone
College opens up the opportunity to meet different people, make new friends, and figure out who you want to be, but if you have a hard time getting adjusted, there's a lot of alone time you face. Even if you're used to being alone and deal with things by yourself, you will get lonely in college if you don't get involved in something.
2. Paying For Textbooks
The bills roll out of your wallet as soon as you look up a price of a single textbook. If you expect me to buy a brand new textbook for $300, think again. Look for those used textbook deals, but even then they're expensive. It's even worse when your professor decides they have no need for textbook use.
3. Messy Sleeping Schedule
Getting any sleep is a blessing, especially if you have a hectic schedule that determines if or when you can sleep. Even a 10 minute "nap" may be all you get in a day. What's sleep when you need to focus on that 10 page essay you were supposed to start two weeks ago?
4. Balancing Work, School, and Personal Life
This one's always tough. Life will always get in the way of work or assignments no matter how much you try not to let it. Work schedules may cause you to rip your hair out especially if you have a class right after your shift ends. The exhaustion never ends.
5. Sharing a Bathroom
The toilet paper is always the first to disappear. You could have sworn you bought a whole pack the other day. When there's multiple people living with you, your privacy is no longer a given thing.
6. More Responsibility
Maybe people enjoy being able to take care of everything by themselves, but sometimes that gets too complicated. You'll always need someone, at least a parent or a friend to get you on the right track when you end up spiraling down a dark hole that you may not notice you're doing.
7. Stressful Workload
A quiz and a test in the same class in the same week is stressful enough, but having to complete two quizzes, a test, an essay, and a project in a span of a week or a week and a half is an overload of material. It's hard to balance and keep track of everything that needs to be done.
8. Picking Out a Major for the Future
Many people go into University undeclared and that may cause panic when choosing classes. No one wants to waste money on a class that will not help towards their degree. It's even worse when you know what you want to major in, but change your mind halfway through your college experience. Trying to figure out what you want to do is stressful especially since it basically defines your future.