I'm taking a ten minute break from my studies to just... unwind.
I thought college would be fun. When I was a senior in high school, the prospects of moving into a dormitory with hundreds of people my own age and level of intelligence thrilled me.
I partied; I socialized; I've made great friends. But there are some things I just have to rant about.
1. It's utterly ridiculous to put pressure on oneself to figure out what they want to do with their lives in the span of a year... or two. I mean... look at it this way... at UCLA, each freshmen is required 2/3 writing course, a year of math, a year of foreign language, 3 humanities analysis courses, 3 courses in sociology/history, a fine arts course. It kind of sounds like high school. Added to this, if you entered on the same track that I did, you were probably on the premed or prerequisites track to applying for some obscene major with 17 prerequisites... so in between getting used to college... maybe finding a job... looking for extracurriculars... living in a building full of teenagers who never sleep... and... well... STUDYING... it's ridiculous.
2. I'm sure a lot of us are in the same boat. I'm pretty much a broke college student. Life is meagre. I mean... I do have money in my bank account, but that's going to books... and my next housing payment. Not to mention... in this day and age, it is nearly impossible to find a job with whatever major you have. College students now are coming out of college into a jobless job market with student loans to pay back. What do we have to look forward to? GO BACK TO SCHOOL. Get more in debt over tuition and hope the economy and job market improves.
3. To be honest, I'm only writing this because studying for finals and catching up after being sick for 2 weeks (1 week of really bad rhinopharyngitis, 1 week of influenza)... I've basically been sleeping 3 hours a night... With all this productivity... I'm nowhere.
4. The assumption that college students just party and sleep all day is untrue. I mean... if you're going for the image of the student who is on academic probation and is already taking the notoriously easiest classes on campus... yeah... but I the average student actually studies all night. Reads like a maniac, and does practice problems in hopes to outdo that "other" kid. Darn you bell curves!!!
Okay... my ten minutes are up. I'm sure I haven't written anything profound... In retrospect, a lot of what I just wrote was hogwash. In college, your favorite memories are the ones where you party like a rockstar. At least that's what I will remember twenty years down the line.
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