College Observations

I've only been in college for three weeks, but man have I made some observations and witnessed a whole lot of new things in such a short period of time. Here's just a few things I've been surprised about/observed in college....

I have lived SUCH a sheltered life.

Like, really sheltered. Let's just say I've seen a few things in college that probably wouldn't fly at the Catholic schools I attended for twelve years - ha!

A fair amount of college students smoke.

Seriously, I think every time I walk somewhere I pass someone smoking. I was shocked by that - I've never known anyone my age that smokes?! The business/finance side of me always wonders why poor college students would spend so much money on cigarettes anyway. Doesn't seem smart to me.....

"You have more free time in college" is the biggest lie ever told.
Plain and simple, there is NOT more free time in college, as evidenced by my blog posts this month.

The professors don't mind cursing in class.

Not that a teacher in high school didn't say the occasional cuss word, but college professors do it so much more frequently. It's weird! I guess that could be the difference between private and public schools though.

Not wearing a uniform is so bizarre.

I have to actually think about what I want to wear! It's funny because some people dress very casual, while others will wear dresses to class. People interpret not having a uniform in a wide variety of ways.

There are a lot of foreigners on campus who only speak their foreign languages with each other.

I mean, they have to speak English in order to understand classes, right? But I've never heard one group of foreigners speaking English to each other. It's like they don't want us to know what they're talking about!

A lot of the girls wear their hair down to class.

This is the complete opposite of high school, where half the girls didn't even brush their hair every day!

People are very diverse.

I actually kind of like this. For the first time in my life I'm not going to school with people who are pretty much just like me :)

For being a big campus, I almost always seem to see someone I know.

I swear that pretty much once a day I see someone I went to high school with or pass someone in one of my classes. I am not a popular person what so ever, but I almost always end up saying hi to someone just walking across campus every day.

People seem to forget what college we actually attend.
People wear apparel from other colleges and universities all the time, and it really just baffles me.

Most college students don't care about getting a lot of sleep.
Sure, everyone complains in class that they are dead tired, but then every day those same people are talking about how they were up until 3 AM. No wonder you're tired! Just because I'm in college doesn't mean my preference to be in bed by 10:00 or 10:30 has ceased to exist. What can I say? I'm just one of those people who needs a lot of sleep.

Learning communities are the best idea ever.
I am a part of a group of 34 freshman that are in the same program and share a lot of classes together. It's super nice and a very convenient way to get to know people in your classes.

I am super, super, crazy thankful for my 12 years of private school education.
I think attending a public university is good for me, at least as far as broadening my horizon goes. However, I don't think I would be where I am today without my private education, and I am glad that certain values were instilled in me at such a young age because it makes it so much easier to be resolute in those values and not be swayed by the things going on around me. The way I see it, just because I'm not at a private school anymore, doesn't mean I can't still hold onto my Catholic school values :)

Overall, I'm definitely enjoying college so far. Of course there are days where I still miss high school (like today when I got my yearbook in the mail!), but I think there are a lot of opportunities ahead of me that I am really excited about!

College really is a whole new world.....