Growing up, I watched and read many, and I mean many movies, tv shows, books, etc., where the main character goes off to college and has the time of their life. Naturally, when it came time for me to move into my dorm at the start of this school year, I was beyond excited.
However it didn’t take long for the reality to come brutally crashing down a few weeks into the semester. I’m here to tell you first hand- college is not like what the media says it is.
For one, no one prepares you for the sheer amount of work you have to do. While it may seem easy, only having 2-3 classes a day, college is more work outside of class then anything. If you’ve never read a textbook or taken notes during class, that no longer cuts it and over half of your week is spent reading the textbook and trying to make sense of it. Beyond that, some professors are just… bad professors, and you’ll end up teaching yourself the content on your own time.
That brings me to my next point: time management. Unlike highschool, there isn’t anyone to tell you to do your homework or study for your test. Plus, you have to make sure you have time to do laundry, dishes, keep up with personal hygiene, get enough sleep and take care of your mental health while also balancing your school and a social life. Twenty four hours simply is never enough anymore.
Everything. Is. Expensive. And you don’t really realize it until you have to spend your own money. Why does milk cost $5 a gallon? Why is shampoo so expensive? Why can’t I buy a bike for under $400? These are the real questions of adulthood.
Another thing is that it’s hard to make friends if you’re not a social person in general. Before coming here, everyone (i.e. the massive amounts of Tik-Toks I watched from older students) said that it’s easy to make friends and you’ll find a group of people within the first few weeks. Unfortunately, that’s not always true. You won’t always be besties with your roommate or your neighbors and going up to people to start a conversation is scary!
This isn’t to say that everything about college sucks and you shouldn’t even bother going: there are good things like independence, figuring out who you are, what you like, etc.! The media is infamous for exaggerating and making standards sky high, which can be damaging and a shock when you realize how not true it is.
A good rule of thumb: don’t believe everything the internet says :)
(Quick disclaimer- everyone’s experiences are different, but this is article is from the view of my personal experiences)