For class.
You’ve filled out your applications, gotten your recommendations, sucked up to your teachers, written and rewritten your essays. You’ve taken the SAT’s five times, the ACT’s twice, four subject tests, and four AP classes. And then you’ve licked all your envelopes, stuck all your stamps, crossed your fingers, and prayed for the fat acceptance letters to come.
And then, hopefully, the envelopes come, and when you open them, they begin with a “Congratulations! We are pleased to admit you into the umpteenth class of Northeastern University...” And hopefully, you cheer and scream, and your parents take you out to dinner to celebrate.
Fast forward a few months. It’s summer. You’ve bought your sheets, your towels, your shower caddy, your Easy Mac. You’ve read up on all the college guides, and sure, you may have everything you need. But are you ready for what’s ahead of you?
There are things they don’t tell you about this place. Sure, when you take a tour they show you the dining hall and the quad, but an hour or so of cheerful trivia isn’t what college is really about. No, there are things that you can only learn from experience; sometimes more than once.
It is nearly impossible to eat healthily in the dining hall, unless you eat only salad. And even then, it will oftentimes be sketchy. Sometimes, the dining hall food will even be unidentifiable.
Whenever you decide to go to the gym will be when everyone else decides to go, even if it is at 11:00 at night.
Your dorm will be quiet when you don’t want it to be. Your dorm will not be quiet when you want it to be. This includes Monday night, Tuesday night, Wednesday night...
You may love your roommate. You may hate your roommate. You may never see your roommate.
Homework is sometimes (often) optional. Essays are not. Tests are not either. Studying is, but you’ll fail if you don’t, even if you never cracked open a book in high school.
Textbooks are also sometimes optional.
No one makes you go to class, but you’ll kick yourself if you don’t. For every class you miss, though, that’s more studying that you have to do.
You will find yourself doing the things that you only thought happened in movies (playing frisbee on the quad, getting pizza at 2 a.m.)
College will cost far more than you thought it would, and you will have to buy more pencils, warmer socks, a raincoat. Potato chips are also a necessity.
You will run out of toothpaste.
You will spend more time on Facebook than you ever imagined possible.
Procrastination will become an art form.
You will one day sleep past your alarm and forget to go to class one morning.
Someone will walk in on you while you are in the bathroom, or you will walk in on someone else. You will see people in various states of undress. You will hear your neighbors having sex, hear them have loud conversations about having sex, possibly even see them have sex.
You will meet people you only thought existed in movies.
Alcohol will become your best friend or your worst enemy, or both.
You will fall off your bed at least once.
You will get more of an education out of class than you will in class, but both of them will count. You will tell stories no one will believe. You will meet amazing people, have the time of your life, and learn to live by yourself. You will spread your wings and fly.
And maybe that’s what really matters.
And then, hopefully, the envelopes come, and when you open them, they begin with a “Congratulations! We are pleased to admit you into the umpteenth class of Northeastern University...” And hopefully, you cheer and scream, and your parents take you out to dinner to celebrate.
Fast forward a few months. It’s summer. You’ve bought your sheets, your towels, your shower caddy, your Easy Mac. You’ve read up on all the college guides, and sure, you may have everything you need. But are you ready for what’s ahead of you?
There are things they don’t tell you about this place. Sure, when you take a tour they show you the dining hall and the quad, but an hour or so of cheerful trivia isn’t what college is really about. No, there are things that you can only learn from experience; sometimes more than once.
It is nearly impossible to eat healthily in the dining hall, unless you eat only salad. And even then, it will oftentimes be sketchy. Sometimes, the dining hall food will even be unidentifiable.
Whenever you decide to go to the gym will be when everyone else decides to go, even if it is at 11:00 at night.
Your dorm will be quiet when you don’t want it to be. Your dorm will not be quiet when you want it to be. This includes Monday night, Tuesday night, Wednesday night...
You may love your roommate. You may hate your roommate. You may never see your roommate.
Homework is sometimes (often) optional. Essays are not. Tests are not either. Studying is, but you’ll fail if you don’t, even if you never cracked open a book in high school.
Textbooks are also sometimes optional.
No one makes you go to class, but you’ll kick yourself if you don’t. For every class you miss, though, that’s more studying that you have to do.
You will find yourself doing the things that you only thought happened in movies (playing frisbee on the quad, getting pizza at 2 a.m.)
College will cost far more than you thought it would, and you will have to buy more pencils, warmer socks, a raincoat. Potato chips are also a necessity.
You will run out of toothpaste.
You will spend more time on Facebook than you ever imagined possible.
Procrastination will become an art form.
You will one day sleep past your alarm and forget to go to class one morning.
Someone will walk in on you while you are in the bathroom, or you will walk in on someone else. You will see people in various states of undress. You will hear your neighbors having sex, hear them have loud conversations about having sex, possibly even see them have sex.
You will meet people you only thought existed in movies.
Alcohol will become your best friend or your worst enemy, or both.
You will fall off your bed at least once.
You will get more of an education out of class than you will in class, but both of them will count. You will tell stories no one will believe. You will meet amazing people, have the time of your life, and learn to live by yourself. You will spread your wings and fly.
And maybe that’s what really matters.