My First Year.
So my first year of college is coming to a close, and I've realized a couple things. It’s funny how growing up, you thought of college as the biggest step towards adulthood you can actually make after high school. You would be dorming and living off Cup-o-Noodles and bottled water. You try and steer away from your OCD room mate who is also a germaphobe and not get his side of the room dirty. You would be in classrooms filled with hundreds of students and a professor who doesn’t even know you exist. The campus in itself is so large that you don’t even you have enough time to explore it all. You watched television shows and heard stories about college students going buck wild and crazy parties happening. And throughout my high school career, I always thought my experience was going to be exactly like that.
It wasn’t.
For some it was somewhere along those lines. For me it just wasn’t the case. Being a junior college student has really shaped my way of thinking about the whole college experience. You have a more different mindset when you go to class. For me it’s the dream of transferring. It’s my goal. It’s really the only reason why I’m going to class. It’s amusing how so many people ask me time and time again where I plan on transferring after I reply to them that I go to a junior college. It’s just something I’ve taken notice. It would probably go like this:
“So what college are you going to?”
“Oh, I go to Chabot.”
“Oh really? Where are you planning on transferring?”
Then there’s the whole plethora of schools I can name where I would like to transfer to. This is the fun part for me. Some get an idea of where I really want to transfer to, and some just get typical answers which fill in the void of me having to tell them where I really want to go. And sometimes I would make up a university that’s pretty random just for funsies.
You can always look at the pros and cons of being in a junior college. Some people look down on you because you go to a junior college. Some appreciate your strategy with how you’re going about things. I for one am doing what I need to do to get by. This past year has taught me a lot about staying on track. That is probably the hardest thing to maintain when you go to a junior college or a university or state. Why you ask? Because most college kids don’t go to class when they don’t feel like it. What’s the result? Them taking the same class over and over again and not accomplishing much of anything. With finals next week, two of the four actually mattering, I’ve decided to take a look back at what it was that made my college experience bearable.
There’s not a doubt that I wouldn’t have gotten by my first year without my friends. Going into my first semester as a college student, I didn’t really make any friends. Gabe was essentially the guy who was there for me during my first semester. He would come over my house every Mondays and Wednesdays before class started and we would go to school together. Cute huh. With Chabot, I just went there to do my work and then leave. While all my other friends were living it up in their respective colleges, it seemed like I was rotting away slowly. It was quite ridiculous really. I wasn’t really happy that I was in a junior college, I had personal problems on the side, and it didn’t help that my then English teacher corrected me on my spelling of knowledge. She believed it was spelled k-n-o-w-l-e-g-e.
It also sucks that I didn't have as much freedom as my college friends did. They were able to go out and do their own thing, while I was still stuck by the confines of home. That was a major bummer in my book. There's always the perks of being in a university or a state which causes my envy. All my friends who come back on the holidays always have stories to tell, tall tales to be told, and experiences which overall make me sick. All I really have is that knowledge story.
Then spring semester came around. I was able to catch my second wind. With Gabe, Jeremy, Dennis, Jake, Sunanda, and now Ryan who transferred from Ohlone, I felt at ease again. They were the ones who kept me sane. I always had something to laugh about when I was with them. As monotonous as the work still was, it didn’t really bother me as much. The ghetto wildlife that is Chabot calmed down. I guess you can say I finally eased into my situation.
So now with my first year under my belt, it’s time to take some initiative and start to really step my game up. It’s my second year and I’m hoping to make more improvements than I did this year. When I look back, it wasn’t as horrible as I thought it would be. I mean yeah there was the occasional “Oh my goodness I do NOT want to go to school today,” but aside from that, things are great. It sucks that all my close friends from high school are beginning to branch away and do their own thing, but overall I'm happy for them. Hopefully my second year won't be as horrifying as my first.
It wasn’t.
For some it was somewhere along those lines. For me it just wasn’t the case. Being a junior college student has really shaped my way of thinking about the whole college experience. You have a more different mindset when you go to class. For me it’s the dream of transferring. It’s my goal. It’s really the only reason why I’m going to class. It’s amusing how so many people ask me time and time again where I plan on transferring after I reply to them that I go to a junior college. It’s just something I’ve taken notice. It would probably go like this:
“So what college are you going to?”
“Oh, I go to Chabot.”
“Oh really? Where are you planning on transferring?”
Then there’s the whole plethora of schools I can name where I would like to transfer to. This is the fun part for me. Some get an idea of where I really want to transfer to, and some just get typical answers which fill in the void of me having to tell them where I really want to go. And sometimes I would make up a university that’s pretty random just for funsies.
You can always look at the pros and cons of being in a junior college. Some people look down on you because you go to a junior college. Some appreciate your strategy with how you’re going about things. I for one am doing what I need to do to get by. This past year has taught me a lot about staying on track. That is probably the hardest thing to maintain when you go to a junior college or a university or state. Why you ask? Because most college kids don’t go to class when they don’t feel like it. What’s the result? Them taking the same class over and over again and not accomplishing much of anything. With finals next week, two of the four actually mattering, I’ve decided to take a look back at what it was that made my college experience bearable.
There’s not a doubt that I wouldn’t have gotten by my first year without my friends. Going into my first semester as a college student, I didn’t really make any friends. Gabe was essentially the guy who was there for me during my first semester. He would come over my house every Mondays and Wednesdays before class started and we would go to school together. Cute huh. With Chabot, I just went there to do my work and then leave. While all my other friends were living it up in their respective colleges, it seemed like I was rotting away slowly. It was quite ridiculous really. I wasn’t really happy that I was in a junior college, I had personal problems on the side, and it didn’t help that my then English teacher corrected me on my spelling of knowledge. She believed it was spelled k-n-o-w-l-e-g-e.
It also sucks that I didn't have as much freedom as my college friends did. They were able to go out and do their own thing, while I was still stuck by the confines of home. That was a major bummer in my book. There's always the perks of being in a university or a state which causes my envy. All my friends who come back on the holidays always have stories to tell, tall tales to be told, and experiences which overall make me sick. All I really have is that knowledge story.
Then spring semester came around. I was able to catch my second wind. With Gabe, Jeremy, Dennis, Jake, Sunanda, and now Ryan who transferred from Ohlone, I felt at ease again. They were the ones who kept me sane. I always had something to laugh about when I was with them. As monotonous as the work still was, it didn’t really bother me as much. The ghetto wildlife that is Chabot calmed down. I guess you can say I finally eased into my situation.
So now with my first year under my belt, it’s time to take some initiative and start to really step my game up. It’s my second year and I’m hoping to make more improvements than I did this year. When I look back, it wasn’t as horrible as I thought it would be. I mean yeah there was the occasional “Oh my goodness I do NOT want to go to school today,” but aside from that, things are great. It sucks that all my close friends from high school are beginning to branch away and do their own thing, but overall I'm happy for them. Hopefully my second year won't be as horrifying as my first.