Listen HereBy Garrett Gardner
@literategrizzly
College is supposed to be the best experience of our young lives. These life-changing years and the decisions we make along the way help us to become the best adult-ing adult we can possibly imagine. That being said, we aren’t adults yet. We know that college, just like the other parts of lives, isn’t perfect. After the hype of opening weekend settles and all the parents head home, we are left with a harsh reality – actually – several of those realities.
Textbooks
First off, lets us start with the big one. We spend thousands upon thousands of our hard-earned mons to enroll in the school of our dreams so that we can earn a degree and make something of ourselves. We sign up for all of our classes and pay off our first semesters, thinking we are in the clear from a financial standpoint. Then we receive our textbook list. Whether we buy online or from the bookstore, it’s almost a guarantee that we will shell out several hundred dollars for a collection of books we sadly may never open. It’s even worse for the majors who take multiple science or math classes. Each individual book could set you back a pretty penny. We are all victim to at least one semester of partaking in overpriced parchment. Only then do you realize that renting is the way to go.
Morning Classes
We begin college with the dreaded high school schedule behind us, or so we thought. More often than not at least once in our college experience we are scheduled to have an 8 a.m. class. Thanks to the infamous 8 a.m., you can expect to take a break from the stereotypical college lifestyle of staying up late to function early in the morning or just stay up late and power through with a caffeine addiction.
Debt
We are enrolled into the prestigious University of Findlay where minds flourish and dreams become a reality. All we have to do is empty our pockets and take out a “small” loan. All over the nation there is a sad trend occurring that we are all aware of but remain silent. We go into debt (negative mons) to hopefully earn a degree. We then take our degree to land a job. Finally we take the money from that job to pay off what we owe for earning the degree to get the job in the first place. But none of this matters if you are the recipient of a plentiful academic or athletic scholarship. Oh well, there’s always grad school.
Dorm Life
Here’s a fun idea: let’s take strangers who have only known each other for maybe a few weeks and pack them together into a box for a room. Then let’s tell them they have to get along, they have to share, and they have to live like this for two whole school years (unless you’re lucky enough to qualify for commuting range). Sure, you are promised to make lifelong friends and be introduced to
others from all walks of life. That’s all fine and well. But we all know at least one story about the “roommate from hell.”
Don’t get me wrong, college is a great decision to better yourself and isn’t something to regret. Rough times at school are all part of the growing process. Undoubtedly the positives outweigh any negatives we can come up with. But no matter who you are or what your story is, there’s one thing that is always true: here’s always something to hate about college.
