Before actually going to college, I had a very specific image of college life in mind: crazy parties, instant best friends, and an addiction to caffeine. Once I started college, however, I realized this was not the case at all.

Parties were not fun-filled dancing in one room and casual conversation in the other. They were more like being packed like sardines in one small space with blaring music and unavoidable heat. Despite this, I continued to go to party after party, leaving, more often than not, disappointed.

I got along with my roommate, and even the first couple of people I met, but I was far from making instant best friends. I felt awkward and out of place, not sure who I would be eating lunch with Tuesday afternoon, or hanging out with on a Friday night.

Coffee was never on my mind. I mean, I hate the taste anyway, but I thought that somehow being a college student would transform my taste buds. Not only did I still hate the taste, but I also easily finished my work on time without it, and often would be in bed before 11 p.m. There was no need for caffeine, which I guess is a good thing, but I was disappointed in the very normal life I was leading.

Constantly, I found myself upset that I was not "doing college right." It felt like all my friends from high school were having the times of their lives, while I sat idly by, unsatisfied. Even though these feelings began to subside towards the end of my freshman year, every once in a while I would get a pang of disappointment about my lame college life.

At the beginning of this year, it dawned on me that the idea of a typical college life is a myth. It is a large misconception created from a number of unrelated college students’ experiences and college-themed movies. Real life is so rarely equivocal to life in the movies. There is not one "right" college experience. Every college and university is different, as are the students who attend them, and no singular experience will mirror another.

From an early age, our expectations of college are set high, and when the reality fails to live up to our expectations, we think we are doing something wrong. Thinking in this way is the only thing that is actually wrong. Just because society perpetuates a singular view of college life, does not mean that other views do not exist. Some nights may resemble that idea of a crazy college life, but I do not believe there is any school in which this is a constant reality. And honestly, I would not want to go to any school where it was a reality.

I stopped trying to live the typical college life, and began enjoying my college life. Rather than frat house ragers, I enjoyed wine Wednesdays and concerts in the city with a few close friends. I became less concerned with doing what I was supposed to do, and focused on what I wanted to do. Now my days are filled with classes and activities I am actually interested in, not drinking coffee and worrying about the weekend. My roommate and my friends became my best friends as we were all more honest about the things we hated and loved about Seton Hall, and grew closer from it. I love Seton Hall for what I have made it, not for what I had expected it to be.

I am not living the raging college life, it took me awhile to make best friends, and sometimes I go to bed before 8 p.m. This isn't the "typical college life" that does not exist, but I would not think of trading my college experience with any other.