A whole two weeks and no new blog posts! Did you miss me, readers, because I missed you! The past two weeks have been a lot, to say the least. You could probably tell from all my social media that I jumped on a plane, moved into college and have been trying to adjust ever since. It's been a good time, but it's also been really eye-opening.
The thing with college is that before going in, we all build these expectations. Either based off what people say, YouTube videos or just our own thoughts at 1 a.m. But the bottom line is college has a lot of unnecessary expectations behind it. However, by being here for the past two weeks some of those expectations have been brutally demolished by reality. So, if you're in college let me know if you can relate to the things I'm about to say or if you're going to college, get ready for me to pop that hopeful bubble of yours.
But, before I start spitting facts, welcome back to my blog, readers! If you're new here, this is my blog where I give guides and drop lots of advice about creativity, school and lifestyle! If you haven't, you should definitely subscribe so you can get notified every time I drop a new post! Oh, and you should 100% click that little heart icon at the end of this post because it goes toward the "Fill Matthew's Self-Esteem Charity" One like = a chance to make me happy. Okay, now that I've received validation from strangers, let's get into: College Expectations vs Reality.
Waking Up
Alright so, going into college I always knew I was not a morning person. I accepted it and have been coping with the struggle for years. But, you see, the great thing about college is that you can select what time you want your classes to be. So, obviously I took advantage of that and made all my classes start around 10:30-11:30 so I would be as productive as possible and not want to kill myself on a daily basis like in high school. Sounds smart, right? Wrong.
You see, what I've come to realize is that by starting my days so late I also subsequently finish my days really late. So by the time I'm done classes, it's almost night time and I just wanna relax, sleep or socialize. Then I hardly have time for studying or reading. But, the problem is: I'm an English major. I literally have to read to get my degree.
So, in reality, I have to wake up quite early anyway in order to get enough reading and studying done for the day. It sounds like such a nerd problem, I know, but if I don't read I literally will not understand my lectures and not just feel stupid but quite literally be stupid for hours at a time. I should've just picked the damn 8 a.m.
Making Friends
To an extent making new friends is hard because at first, it's awkward because no one knows anyone yet. But now, everyone has kinda settled into being comfortable and it's so easy to meet new people. You can meet people by going out, from your classes or your floor and mutual friends are a thing too so whether or not you like it, you'll find yourself recognizing a bunch of people whose names you can't remember.
Oh, and something that's quite interesting in a weird way this time around is that you can randomly just say hello to someone and start a conversation that way. Because it's still the first month it's not super weird yet and more often than not you'll find that they're actually interested in talking to you. I know, your anxiety just sky-rocketed by reading that but it's high-key true and it makes you feel a lot less alone in a time that can feel very lonely if you allow it to.
Partying
My college is a stereotypical party college. Every time I told someone where I was going all I got were party comments. Every. Single. Time. So, naturally, I was preparing myself mentally to be dodging parties like bullets. I had actually imagined myself just like running away from a party at like 2 p.m. on a Tuesday.
But, to be honest, it's not that bad. Like, if you want to party, it's pretty easy to go out and have fun. But also, if you don't, it's equally as easy to literally just stay in all day and do nothing. Although, it's probably worth mentioning that this might be because of the residence I'm in. I'm in one of the fairly quieter residences and I've heard stories of other buildings that go crazy on a Thursday evening so I don't know but, personally, I've been having a good time.
Classes
I don't know what I was expecting but this isn't it. I went from not buying any textbooks in high school and doing pretty well to needing to buy textbooks in order to be able to do assignments that are literally 10% of my final grade.
Even thinking about it I have the compelling urge to just laugh. Like, what? In high school, we spent a term on one book, maybe two. In college, it's one book per week. And I know everyone always said it's a lot of on your own work, but they did not convey that message adequately. Its probably 90% individual work. Like, you're expected to teach yourself and the lecturer is just there to help/watch you do that. I have to laugh. There are so many other things too but I'm just gonna list them off to save myself the deep anger of getting riled up by talking about them in length. So here we go:
Recording lectures is one thing, listening to them is another.
Tutorials are better than lectures.
Everyone in class is just as confused as you, they just have a better poker face.
Your lectures know when your shopping on Amazon instead of taking your notes.
The syllabus is your only friend.
You're spending way too much in tuition to not learn the material.
Conclusion
I think everyone's college experience is vastly different and I've only been here for about two and a half weeks so you can't take everything I say as gospel but, I'm right and you're wrong.
I kid, I kid. College is great but it just runs up on you really fast and you're forced to grow and engage which is kinda the best part. If you're currently in college comment down below letting me know if you agree or have any additions! If you're not in college, don't worry it's a scam anyway!
In other news, I've been really loving my writing in my new book "Godspeed". I think it's my best book to date and if you'd like to give it a read feel free to check me out on Wattpad! And while you're at it, you should definitely follow me Twitter and Instagram where I occasionally rant, share music and discuss the pains of being a creator. Have a great weekend, readers!
