New school, new classes, and new teachers. Going to college was something that I have looked forward to for so long. Ever since I was young I knew that studying hard in high school meant you were studying for your future in a certain college. Well now I’m here and it’s a whole lot different than I expected. Instead of studying for my future in a different school, I’m studying for my future in life.
College is great don't get me wrong, but there's something about the fact that you are studying for your own success in your future. With no limits or parents there to tell you what to do it’s a whole different ball game. I walked into my dorm the other night and my RA had posted some comparison facts on the differences between College and High School. High School: seven hours a day thirty-five hours a week, attendance-mandatory, role always taken, class size-30-35. College: three hours a day eighteen hours a week, attendance-not mandatory but strongly encouraged, class size-anywhere from 15 to 200. The list could go on for forever but the biggest difference that I seem to struggle with is that I have no boundaries to push me to do what's right; Only my own self-conscious. I simply wake up in the morning and say hmm it's time to go to class, but who's there to encourage me if I don't go. I am slowly learning independence a whole different way in college. Sure you're on your own and taking care of yourself but there's more to it than that.
The choices I make affect no one other than me. I am paying to have the education that I am receiving from SMU and yet I still have to work at getting up and doing it. I guess what I'm trying to say is that its pretty scary waking up every morning knowing that I have to have the will power to make the right choices. Sure I've slipped here and there and made the wrong ones, but college is all about learning. Learning about school and life. Learning for your life.
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2 comments:
I completely understand what you're saying here. In high school, if I slept through my alarm clock my mom was always there to get me up and make me go to school. If I didn't feel well, I had to be able to convince someone that I was unable to go to class. Now if my alarm doesn't go off I don't go to class. If I don't feel well, I get to make the decision if I want to get up or not. But even without the external motivation of my parents or advior (who would call to see why I wasn't at school), I find that I get myself up for class the vast majority of the time. I realize that if I want to do well in school I need to go to class, and I make sure to do so. I believe part of it, however, is that now I'm in school for me, studying what I want to be studying.
Making the right decision is really a matter of maturity; I think for you and many other students the effort your parents put into raising you to be mature is paying off now. I wonder if the people who have the most trouble making the right decisions grew up with a disadvantage, such as parents who were not strict enough. Would you both describe your parents as pretty strict? What about your friends who had more lenient parents?
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