Everyone always talks about one day living life in the “real world.” It’s true that being a student is very different from being a working adult, paying your own bills, and living in your own apartment, yet many people talk about the “real world” as something remote and distant, something scary that you don’t want to face. But what is college if not the real world? In many ways, college is just as real as life as a working adult will be.
In college, you have to balance your time just as much, if not more, than you would working a 9-5 job. Working a full time job might mean you spend 40 hours of every week working for someone else with only the leftover hours of every day for yourself.
But as a student, you come home from class, part-time jobs, and extracurriculars with homework that you then have to squeeze into the free time you have. When you work full time, you might spend a lot of time at work, but for most professions at least, you leave work at the office and time at home is completely your time.
You will have to learn to budget your money between all the different fees you have to pay. In addition to direct tuition fees, there will be textbook expenses, and groceries to buy (especially if you live off campus), in addition to club fees and other living necessities. You may even be paying rent for off campus rooms, buying gas and paying for car insurance, which all expenses that you will see in the real world. If you’re already getting well acquainted with them as a student, you’ve already got a foot in the door of the aloof “real world.”
You will also be forced to face issues that you’ve never seen before and may never see again. College campuses are hubs for debates and discussions in a way you may never see in the world beyond college. You may find yourself in the midst of a protest on your way to class or get caught in intense debates with classmates and hall mates about current events. Many times, these situations are ones you would be isolated from in the “real world,” or they could be situations you actively choose to put yourself in.
On a similar topic, you will be forced to deal with people with very different perspectives and values than you and avoiding them just won’t be the answer. Many discussions, especially today, are highly politically charged and polarized. While you might choose to be a part of organizations with people who share many of your values and goals, you will have to work with people you don’t have anything in common with and whom you may not like.
You will have to live with strangers and respect them and any living habits they have, regardless of how you feel about them. Living with a roommate is probably one of the hardest experiences you will go through in college. Even if you are good friends with your roommate, you still have to balance that friendship with shared living responsibilities.
By no means am I saying that college is the same as life after graduation. But, for those who think college is not “real,” I encourage you to think again. Just because the experiences you have here differ from those you will have as a full time working adult, it doesn’t mean that they are any less valid or important, or that they do not prepare you for your future. College is a legitimate experience even if it differs from life after graduation. You might have more freedom and autonomy once you graduate, but that doesn’t mean what you see here is silly because it is more controlled. Everything you go through in college is real and has lasting implications.