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| he looks too old to be in college |
(Yep. I was one of those homeschoolers. But don't worry. I've heard of rock music and I change my denim jumper every couple of weeks or so.)
But the truth is, what I expected and what I got were totally different. Well, sort of. I did eat cold pizza and ramen and stay up late. Those things I was expecting. But there were several things I was totally unprepared for:
1. You're still a teenager for half your time in College.
In both age and maturity, considering you go to college when you're 18 and graduate when you're 22, the first two years of college are basically high school remixed to a teeny bit faster beat. I'm not saying this to sound condescending. It's actually a really good thing you don't enter college at full, young adult, maturity. The first two years of college were where I did my most serious growth.
Of course, it goes without saying, that not everyone goes to college a kid and leaves an adult. But in general, college is a time of transition, a time of independence, a time to make mistakes without your parents around to warn you (you'll appreciate them a lot more too).
2. You only spend a few hours a day "in class."
Ok, let's say you have a crazy schedule...you decided to take 6 or 7 classes in one semester. That's somewhere in the range of 18-21 class units or hours. That's equivalent to a little over 3 and a half hours a day, Monday through Friday. Obviously, depending on the class format you may spend more or less time. But really only a minority of your day is spent "in class." I keep putting "in class" in "quotes" because most professors would count homework time as being "in class." (okay, I'm stopping now)
I guess I would count that time too.
But when I pictured college I kept thinking about it like school. Well like school school. You know, where you leave early in the morning and don't get back until 3 or so. Of course, I don't want to make it sound like college is cake.
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| mmm... cake |
But it's so different from the high school typical- "Okay, now this time is set aside for school. Now this time is set aside for goofing off." (and when you blend the two you get neither)
3. Naps become amazing
I was debating putting this one down because it seems so trivial. Like seriously? Ok, Katie. We get it. You love sleep. But you have to understand....pre-college Kate was not into napping.
I was really into sleeping in. Still am. But sleeping during the day seemed sort of depressing. Like that's what depressed lonely people do...they sleep the sun out. ( I don't know what that means either)
Remember how I said you're really only in class like maybe 3 or 4 hours out of the day...yeah...guess what I did with the rest of my time...
Youuuu guessed it. And I have passed out in the strangest places. One time I slept in my school library which was literally like two minutes away from my dorm. I wasn't studying there. I literally went there to nap.
Like, why I couldn't walk the extra 16th of a mile to my dorm and sleep in my bed?
Here is a basic equation in case you still aren't convinced that college equals more naps:
naps > studying
4. You don't really get smarter, just better at looking smart.
For all of you daydream believers and homecoming queens (points to whoever gets this song reference!) out there that believe that getting a college degree means you also become intelligent...check under your pillow...I think the tooth fairy and Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny and St. Patrick came to visit.
It's true. You do learn quite a bit in college. You learn about authors who lived depressing lives and theorems made by people who were also living depressed lives. You learn about yourself. You learn about other people.
Do you see a common theme here, besides the word "you?" Okay. Yes. "Learn."
Basically, college is a place where you LEARN stuff. It's just information. It really doesn't make you any better than anyone. It just means you've learned things. It means you've learned HOW TO learn things. Some of these things are very hard to LEARN. Some of these things might have made you CRY. But in the end you just learned stuff.
Picture drawing a house. Imagine if you, a non-artistic Communication major (oh atehehe I must be talking about myself) drew that bad boy. Okay, I know there has to be a chimney off to the side of the roof with a couple of squiggly lines that represent smoke. Now picture a house drawn by someone who studied architecture. Can you imagine how different the house would look, how much more detailed that picture is going to be?
They are both pictures of a house. But one has way more information. Information that was learned.
5. You come in knowing everything and leave knowing nothing.
To bring this whole post full circle, remember how I said earlier that when you get to college you're still basically a teenager....and then a bunch of freshman stopped reading my blog...
Well, ignorance sort of goes along with immaturity. In fact, it seems the more you think you know, the more ignorant you actually are.
When I got to college, I thought I had a few questions about life but that I was mostly good to go. Those few questions branched off into a million little questions which then metastasized into these huge life questions.
I discovered people who spent a lifetime studying subjects I only spent 15 weeks on. I was surprised by how few books or authors I'd even heard of, much less read, despite the fact that they were more famous than Miley Cyrus in their hayday.
I don't say this to sound despairing. Unless by "despairing" you mean "amazed," shaken to my core," and every other way of sounding impressed.
I do say that recognizing you're ignorant is the first step. Just like a recovery program.
There will always be ignorance. I will always be ignorant. I will always be ignorant of how ignorant my ignorance is.
But the main point is this: Know your ignorance. Know your ignorance and do something about it.
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