It Was The Best Of Times, It Was The Worst Of Times
Post-secondary education is a wonderful space for any young adult to learn who they are and how they operate in the real world. It’s also the space to learn how to push your body to its absolute maximum, learn about the annoyances of living with strangers, and experience how much caffeine is too much. Do you agree with our list?
1. Roommate Conflict
It could be something as small as consistently forgotten dishes or using up your toilet paper, or something much more problematic. Learning how to live with strangers makes you realize what kind of a mess you are, how dirty is too dirty, and understanding why your mother was the way she was.
2. Homesickness
Unless you attended boarding school in your younger years, college was the first time you’re going to be away from the world you knew for the first 18 years of your life. Not to mention, you’re learning how to live in an entirely new city at the same time. A little homesickness is natural.
3. Disruptive Environments
Whether in your dorm or in a campus building, it was challenging to find a quiet spot to study. Many students had to duke it out for individual study rooms, a spot at the library, or had to invest in some soundproof headphones.
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4. Failing A Class
College classes are hard, and sometimes the professors are even harder. Getting a poor grade or straight-up failing a class when you have a long history of As or Bs is a shock to the system.
5. The Dorms
The concrete-walled, definitely stained, all-around bleak feeling of the dorms is likely a universal experience. With so many essentially teenagers packed into one space, dorms are a hotbed for mold, mildew, and general debauchery.
6. Imposter Syndrome
It’s common to feel inadequate among your peers. Everyone else is so talented, so well-read and well-spoken, and overall excelling in their studies. But we promise you— everyone else felt the same way you did.
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7. Frat Houses
Otherwise known as dorms pushed to their absolute maximum. Frat houses were among the most unclean, disorganized, and scariest places to visit during a night of partying— we pray you didn’t use the bathroom.
8. Less Than Friendly Professors
The 100 and 200-level professors were likely some of the meanest you encountered during your time at college. It might have been their attitude, their grading style, or that they never shared their slides with you, but every college student has that one professor they won’t ever forgive.
9. That One Campus Building
Every college campus has that one building that was made to instill fear and confusion into the average student. Why do some stairwells only go to certain floors? Why is room 209 actually on the first floor? Do bathrooms even exist in this place? Many questions with very few reasonable answers.
10. The Mornings After
We don’t need to say much about the night before, but everyone has an experience of waking up in their dorm room to the lights on and their shoes still on their feet. Chug a bottle of water, pop some ibuprofen, and hope that it doesn't come back up.
1. Meeting Lifelong Friends
If you’re lucky, your college friends will be with you for the rest of your life. They were with you through thick and thin for four years, and that kind of bond doesn’t leave a person easily.
2. Late-Night Study Sessions
Sure, the overwhelming sense of despair hung over your group like a raincloud about to burst, but there was pizza! Late-night study sessions built character and camaraderie among you and your peers, and there was a more relaxed and joyous feel to it than studying alone in the middle of the day.
3. Personal Growth
College is about finding who you are. It’s also about discovering who you were, and some things that you could change about yourself. That sounds bad— we don’t mean like you learned to pretend to be someone you’re not, but maybe you learned how to set good boundaries, or clean the bathroom.
4. The Campus Atmosphere
There is something special about being on campus. It can feel like something out of a movie. People laughing, someone throwing a frisbee, music playing. If you lived on campus, you got even more of this with common room chats and late-night get-togethers with your other dorm-livers.
5. The Parties
You’re a young adult beginning their life for the very first time, and having a night or two (or more) that will become a story to tell later in life is a quintessential part of the university experience.
6. Finding A Mentor
This could’ve been an older student, a recent grad, a TA, or even a professor, but having someone guiding you through the epic highs and lows, the triumphs and defeats of a college education likely took a huge weight off your shoulders.
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7. Student Life
Student life is all about finding a sense of community. There are so many extracurriculars to join, between clubs, governing bodies, or working for a student radio or magazine. Looking onto a quad and seeing 20 different people who know you by name is not something most people will experience later in life.
8. Accomplishing A Major Milestone
Graduating from college is a huge deal, and it should be celebrated. You spent four years working hard (and playing hard) to get where you are, and you were able to walk that stage, take your diploma, and feel a sense of relief that that chapter of your life has closed.
9. The Freedom
Both a blessing and a curse, because either way, nobody is telling you what to do. Having the freedom to make your own choices and live your life the way you want is crucial to your development as a person, but it also makes you realize how much is too much.
10. Becoming An Adult
When we were kids, we always heard, “Just wait until you’re a grown-up.” And now we’re all grownups, with our own lives and responsibilities and choices to make in this world. It’s scary and overwhelming, but if college taught us anything, it’s to keep moving forward.
